Date of Observation: 01/22/2023
Name: Zane Wasicko
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skinned in Washington Gulch to do some beacon practice. Now real skiing.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Small slide on South West aspect of Gothic near tree-line. Didn’t see it happen but saw a crown. Pretty small but though may as well submit
Weather: Clear am, cloudy pm. Sunny. Cold. Not too windy
Photos:
5925
Date of Observation: 01/22/2023
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: West and East. 10,000ft to 11,800ft.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Small sluffs. Not enough to be problematic and more a sign of the good snow quality.
Weather: Clam wind. High thin clouds slowly built in, becoming partly cloudy around noon and overcast later in the afternoon.
Snowpack: Thank you Ullr, the snow is still really good in some places, after yesterday’s northerly winds. We didn’t travel into the high alpine where snow surfaces could have been more wind affected. On this tour, snow surfaces were delightfully soft.
We started and finished the day on an east aspect between Ruby and the Dyke. The total snowpack depth was deep. The only potential concern was lingering wind slabs near ridgeline. We didn’t end up encountering a wind slab problem where we gained the ridge.
Off the west side, the snow surface in the first hundred feet was a little wind pressed, then it became soft and well-preserved powder from the last cycle. Those precipitation particles near the snow surface were still fairly large and had not decomposed much. At 10,000ft on the west side of the Dyke, the total HS was 170cm on a 10 degree west facing slope. Between 10,000ft and 11,800ft the HS varied dramatically in this location. Both due to past wind events and perhaps old avalanche activity that is no longer visible. Either way, we encountered no signs of instability while skiing and climbing steep slopes.
Photos:
5924
Date of Observation: 01/23/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Long tour below timberline on W-N-E slopes. Two consecutive days. ~6 miles
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches. Small crowns buried from at least a week ago.
Weather: Cold, calm, sunny
Snowpack: No obvious signs of instability beneath the skis. No observed instability on surrounding mountains. Supportive Sun crusts on west faces. Dry cold surface on N-SE slopes
5923
The weekly snowpack summary is here. Last weekend’s warm temperatures and clear skies gave way to a series of storms that dropped 3-4 feet of snow across the valley. Storm slabs and wind slabs were the predominate avalanches reported during this cycle.
Weekly Summary January 13 – 19, 2023 compressed
Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up Walrod
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: small slab on west facing slope, running next to the trail.
Weather: 1/19/2023
Sunny, 20s
Snowpack:
Photos:
5922
Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Avalanches viewed from Reno Ridge in the Ruby Mountains. Views from a long way off.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A natural slab on Owen, east aspect, and another near Bichmond (along spine of Ruby Range by Cascade), southeast aspect. Both look to be small D2 avalanches in the recent storm snow. Probably big enough to bury a person, but viewed from 20 miles away.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
5918
Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Jack Caprio
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recent Avalanche on the south side of Ruby Peak. Large in size. Best guess is that it failed in the recent 40+ inches of storm snow, 2 to 3 feet deep.
Photos:
5917
Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Cement Creek Road up Grassy Hill up Radio Tower Hill on snowmobile. Ski tour on eastern side of Radio Tower Hill.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Views into Southeast Mountains revealed just a few small Wind Slabs in alpine terrain. All appeared to be D1 in size, well short of D2;
Weather: Mostly clear skies with thin, high clouds sliding in around midday. Light winds before noon that went breathless at 12,000 feet in the afternoon. The recent storm cycle had a settle height of roughly 12″ at treeline.
Snowpack: I toured along a north-to-south ridgeline around 12,000 feet. No signs of instability underfoot while stomping along the thin edge of slabs on westerly start zones or drifted east through south terrain features. Weak layers are still obvious beneath slabs while probing on most aspects in this area but I was unable to produce any collapses. Snow profile on an alpine south slope showed several facet/crust layers with slabs stacked between but no propagating results (see photo). A northeast slope with a depth of 170cm near the treeline produced ECTX and PST END 65/120. I tried to find signs of instability and couldn’t; even without signs of instability or concerning test results, I would be hesitant to step into consequential terrain in this area for fear of finding a trigger point.
Snow depths near Reno Divide (11,300 feet) were 160cm, near Deadman’s TH (9,700 feet) in the middle portion of Cement Creek were 115cm.
Photos:
5916
Date of Observation: 01/19/2023
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River Ruby Range area. Various aspects, NE-E,SE-S-W. 9,300-11,500ft
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few wind slabs, storm slabs, sluffs, and cornice breaks, but nothing real big or notable. Nothing looked like it was running on a persistent weak layer. Will attach the best highlights in pictures.
Weather: Headed out around 11am. Cloud cover had increased by that time with incoming high thin clouds. Somewhere in the partly cloudy to mostly cloudy range through the early afternoon. Calm wind. Beautiful day.
Snowpack: In general, a lot of things look deep and caked in snow. I sure hope the wind stays away. Snow surfaces were impressively good, even in the alpine after yesterday’s increased winds. A little thicker than a few days ago, but still lovely. I pushed through several thick wind-loaded pillows on steep SE test slopes at around 10,700ft, and a couple of other locations. Couldn’t get anything to budge. Wind slabs felt stubborn.
Photos:
5915
Date of Observation: 01/18/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climbed up the NE face of Snodgrass to the top of “Abbey Lane”, then gained the ridge to the top of “Fourth Bowl”. We dug the snowpit there, then skied down to Gothic road.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No avalanches. Minor sluffing of the most recent storm snow, between 2 and 5″, during skinning.
Weather: Overcast with some sunshine peeking through.
Snowpack: 210cm deep snowpack downslope of a large tree at the top of 4th bowl. See attached image.
Performed a compression test and observed no failure, although snow only compressed until the layer at 150cm.
5913
