Date of Observation: 02/18/2023
Name: jeff banks
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Poop Loop looking at Whetstone + Cement Creek
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Strong NW Winds NTL + ATL
Lenticular clouds over Cement Creek zone
Snowpack: Intense Snow Transport NTL + ATL
Photos:
6011
Date of Observation: 02/18/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek to Hunter Hill to Carbonate Hill, various aspects to 12,700′
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing new today. Got a closer look at the large (D2.5) persistent slab reported by Ben yesterday. I estimate the crown was up to 5 feet thick and pencil hard, based on debris chunks. Hard to say what weak layer it failed on, it looks like the bedsurface is a very hard windboard layer, and there were several layers of the wind board onion that peeled off further downslope.
Weather: Few to scattered clouds. Moderate winds above 12,000′ caused light wind drifting in a few areas.
Snowpack: No signs of instability except I triggered a couple of tiny 1″-2″ wind slabs that were forming from today’s blowing snow. I targeted a shallow area on a SE-facing slope above treeline and got hard, propagating results on depth hoar near the ground below a 90 cm, 1F slab. A couple of tests near and above treeline produced non-propagating failures in the recent wind slabs and no failures on the storm interface. There’s about 3 to 5″ of settled storm snow below treeline that’s been redistributed by northerly winds near and above treeline.
Photos:
6010
Date of Observation: 02/17/2023
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up Schuylkill Ridge via OBJ skintrack.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D2 natural farther down the ridge on the SE side. Ran within last 48hrs presumably on sun crust storm interface.
Weather: Sun with thin clouds, no wind.
Snowpack: Did get one planar result from hasty hand shear on similar aspect/elevation as observed natural avalanche at storm snow interface (2/15) on small facets 1cm above sun crust.
Photos:
6008
Date of Observation: 02/17/2023
Name: Zach Kinler and Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Top of the World down to Gothic CG and back. 9,600′-11,500′.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed a couple of small wet loose avalanches running from rocky, steep south-facing terrain near Mt. Bellview around 12:00 pm. D1 in size.
Weather: Clear skies and calm winds. Below zero temps at the trailhead in the morning gave way to temps at or just above freezing once out of the inversion in the valley floor.
Snowpack: We traveled primarily on slopes facing E-SE-S along the GMT course. No signs of instability were observed underfoot. Open areas near tree line had variable thin wind crusts while sheltered areas were lightly faceted and soft. Snow surfaces on SE and S slopes were moist by midday. HS on an east-facing slope at 10,100 was 185cm. A profile of the upper snowpack on this slope produced 1 hard propagating result and 1 non-propagating result in an ECT on the late January interface. This interface was a thin, 4-finger hard facet layer below a 1-finger slab.
6007
Date of Observation: 02/16/2023
Name: Ben Ammon
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pearl Pass down to Friends Hut
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 1x D1.5 windslab E aspect Star Peak ran during day 2/15 when winds were out of East (no pic, sorry)
1x D2.5 windslab that stepped down in the rocky break over in several spots, SE aspect of Carbonate (pic attached) Failed during the early AM hours of 2/16
1x D1 Glide slab just above East River, below 4th Bowl (one finally went! Pic attached)
Weather: 2/15 moderate winds out of the East all day, low to no vis, high temps below zero on Pearl Pass
2/16 strong NW winds starting shortly after dark on 2/15, tons of scouring and transport leaving every surface NTL/ATL wind affected, as well as any BTL area not in thick trees. Large plumes (see photo of Pearl Pass) and significant transport on all terrain in the zone (Pearl Pass, Star, Crystal, Carbonate, Timbered Hill) High temp of 4*F at Friends Hut
2/17 Subzero but calm (finally!) and warmed significantly during the day.
Snowpack: A variety of small windslabs that failed during the night of 2/15 or day of 2/16, generally SE aspects, the large Carbonate was the only one of note. Many were partially filled in by the time we made it out skiing on 2/16
Photos:
6006
The weekly summary is here. The weekend brought high pressure and great riding to the valley and a multi-day storm from Monday through Wednesday dumped 2+ feet. A variety of wind directions produced tricky wind slab conditions leading into this weekend.
Weekly Summary February 10 – 16, 2023 COMPRESSED
Date of Observation: 02/17/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mineral Point, targeting wind slab instabilities on east to south aspects to 11,600′. Our plan was to cross under the south face of Mineral early morning before it got too warm. After several delays this morning (2 dead car batteries!), we didn’t cross beyond the most exposed sunbaked terrain until 11 a.m., which in hindsight, was cutting it too close for the type of terrain that we were on.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large natural wind slab released off the south face of Mineral around 11:15 a.m., triggered by solar warming or perhaps a very tiny wet loose. The debris washed over part of our skin track that we had set an hour earlier.
Evidence of a widespread storm slab cycle in the Slate during the storm, along with numerous wind slabs in Poverty Gulch that ran after the storm, likely during yesterday’s northerly winds, up to D2 in size. See photos.
Weather: Clear, calm winds. Rapid warming; Double puffy snowmobile ride (-20F at TH), down to sun shirts once we started skinning. At one point, I looked over and my partner’s bare butt was showing, frantically trying to remove his long underwear. haha.
Snowpack: North winds did a lot of damage in Poverty Gulch, with wind slab formation scattered across all elevations. Wind slabs are easy to recognize: smooth, stiff snow (6″ to 12″ thick, 4F to 1F) below rollovers and in gullies, in contrast to softer, rippled sastrugi elsewhere. Wind slab feedback was stubborn underfoot. I snowmobiled and ski stomped on over half a dozen suspect wind-loaded rollovers without any signs of instability or cracking. However, I could produce cracks up to 5 feet while stomping on slopes undercut by the skin track. I also got easy test results on wind-drifted slopes (ECTP1, ECTPV). All of the wind slabs in this area, and my test results, failed on a low-density precip particle layer (non-persistent). Tests on the 2/13 storm interface were unreactive. I tested an east-facing slope near treeline which had a thin crust above facets at the storm interface.
Photos:
6005
Date of Observation: 02/16/2023
Name: Garrett Eggers
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied the shoulder between first and second bowl on 2/16. Noticed a fairly wide crown through the trees on a NE aspect in first bowl that appeared to have entrained only the new snow. Probably ran naturally sometime on 2/15.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Photos:
6004
Date of Observation: 02/16/2023
Name: Andrew Payton
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: ESE chutes directly above Carbon Creek / CR737
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Two avalanches observed on narrow and very steep east facing chutes on Carbon Peak around 130 pm. They ran about ½ mi / 1600’ vertical. I was cross country skiing up FR563 when I heard the long rumbles about 10 mins apart.
Weather: Sunny, 10 degrees
Photos:
6003
Date of Observation: 02/16/2023
Name: Rob Strickland
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: RL to RLB
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Knocked the small cornice off the summit which produced a small slough and tiny slab… the wind was coming quickly from Redwell and building a small cornice on the south side at this time (730)… while skiing a small slab released naturally from the summit. Lower in the bowl another small slab was released on a steeper rollover.
No one was caught.
Slab size 2 – 4″ deep. maybe 50′ wide. D 0.5
Weather: Sunny & COLD
Photos:
6002
