Observations

Date of Observation: 01/06/2023
Name: Ben Pritchett

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ohio Pass
Snowpack: See profile

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 01/06/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard Axtell uptrack and descended a recent bedsurface/debris pile in 2nd Bowl. Then snowmobiled out to Beckwith Pass, traveling mostly below treeline.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several recent large and very large avalanches in Axtell. 2nd Bowl had what appeared to be two unique events that both reached valley floor. The first likely ran during the 12/31-1/1 cycle, evidenced by about 12″ of new on the bedsurface. The second and larger of the two likely ran during the 1/3-1/4 cycle, evidenced by only last night’s snow on the debris. There were a couple of other large avalanches on smaller terrain features in 2nd Bowl. All crowns were about 4 feet thick and failed on depth hoar near the ground. The Wang Chung slide put a big debris pile in valley bottom as well, likely another D3. I couldn’t see if the crown extended into Pencil or not.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snowfall most of the day. There was about 6″ of new near Beckwith Pass at noon, and it came down hard on our way out. Blowing snow near treeline.
Snowpack: Today’s objective was to target sensitivity of below treeline slopes in the shallower fringe areas of the NW Mtns. Stubborn fits well; jumping above and sidehilling across numerous slopes did not produce any signs of instability, and we saw no collapses. The mid-December layer is showing significant improvement (~1mm, rounding) and didn’t produce failures in tests. However, we did still get propagating results (once on isolation, once on hard loading) on the depth hoar layer at the ground, on a north-facing slope of Mt. Axtell.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 01/06/2023
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Silver Queen Express lift

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting a few more large avalanches from the recent cycle.
Weather:
Snowpack:

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5861

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB looking east towards Pearl Pass, Doubletop, etc, looking at the western half of the compass.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of action above treeline that looks fresh, likely from the 1/3-1/4 cycle, generally on cross-drifted features from the NW winds, D2 in size. Also a lot of activity at all elevations that looks a bit older, likely from the 12/31-1/1 cycle. Only documenting the larger slides (D2), plenty of smaller ones too.

Photos:

5860

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pavement observations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more avalanches that failed during the 1/3 – 1/4 avalanche cycle. Avalanches came from drifted north through east through southeast slopes.
Weather: Some drifting above treeline was visible from westerly winds.

Photos:

5859

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB looking east towards Pearl Pass, Doubletop, etc, looking at the western half of the compass.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of action above treeline that looks fresh, likely from the 1/3-1/4 cycle, generally on cross-drifted features from the NW winds, D2 in size. Also a lot of activity at all elevations that looks a bit older, likely from the 12/31-1/1 cycle. Only documenting the larger slides (D2), plenty of smaller ones too.
Weather: Some light drifting still occurring on high peaks.

Photos:

5858

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement obs

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recent natural avalanches on southwest gully on Red Ridge, northeast-facing slope on Emmons above Gunsight Road, and upper snowpack avalanche in Raccoon Bowl on Emmons. See photos
Weather: While glassing for avalanches, I did see periods of moderate snow transport above treeline.
Snowpack:

Photos:

5857

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Cheese _

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The sidehill on Poverty went pretty big.

Photos:

5855

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Below treeline, NE aspect.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Pockets the Clown looks to have jumped drainages and become a bit more widespread and angrier in his activity bouncing around aspects and wreaking some havoc. One that had pulled out previously on a shaded north aspect below treeline ran down the creek bed spilling out nearby a common skin track. Another one on a S/SE aspect hit a common snowmobile route. Not big but still reached it. Also, pocket had pulled out on the steepest pitch of our descent, probably two days ago as there was some new snow in the avalanche path
Weather: It felt warm, and then felt cold. Saw some rollerballs on S/SW aspects around 1:30. Snow on the skin track wall facing SW got warm enough to cause sticking at 2 p.m. Winds out of the SW (?) whipped up temporarily up high around 1 p.m. transporting snow.
Snowpack: Top 14 inches was thicker than previous two days on similar aspect in a different drainage. No signs of instability where we skied today.

Photos:

5854

Date of Observation: 01/05/2023
Name: Connor Scalbom

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Climax Chutes

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Photos of Climax Chutes submitted via @connography_

Photos:

5853