Observations

Date of Observation: 04/15/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mount Emmons on various aspects to 12200′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of thin soft slabs and wet loose avalanches involving the new snow ran naturally or were triggered today (D1s). Most of the slabs were in wind-affected terrain, but at least one broke more like a storm slab.
Weather: Scattered cloud cover cleared by early afternoon. The alpine felt cold and wintery; moderate to strong northwest winds with periods blowing snow. Below treeline felt mild and springlike.
Snowpack: Storm totals increased from a few inches near valley floor up to 10″ above treeline. The snow appeared to be bonding well on most undrifted slopes, but I popped a shallow slab on a rollover below treeline that broke near the storm interface. Drifts averaged about a foot deep and were up to 2′ thick in heavily drifted areas. I produced localized cracking up to 5′ in drifts. I didn’t see any natural wet loose activity today but it was becoming easy to trigger at low elevations by about 1 p.m., involving the top 4″ of wetting snow over the dust/crust. Near the valley floor, that crust was breaking down this afternoon and ski pen was knee-deep on a few slopes.

Photos:

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The weekly summary is here. Who turned up the thermostat? This week saw soaring temperatures and impressive wet avalanche activity.

Weekly Summary April 7-13, 2023 COMPRESSED

Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Bear Claw

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: NE 11,000ft. A wet avalanche that gouged deeply and accumulated additional snow. Large debris pile in the apron below and not visible in the photo. Hard to tell if this avalanche was a wet loose, wet slab, or maybe started by a small cornice chunk.

Photos:

6231

Date of Observation: 04/13/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt Baldy. NW and S.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: I didn’t notice any new avalanche activity.

Weather: Cloud cover was partly cloudy through mid-day and then increased through the afternoon. Moderate winds at upper elevations.

Snowpack: Snow surfaces were frozen and supportable near the trailhead.

Skied NW into the P-Divide bowl and didn’t leave any tracks. Realized the no tracks thing could be a fun game during times like these. The snow surface was a thin supportable crust over dry snow.

Skied the South Bowl of Baldy around 1 pm. The crust wasn’t supportable off the top and ski pin was dropping into the wet mushy snow below. This was in part because of the below-average snowpack depth that exists in the top 1/4 of the bowl. We traveled skier left where the snow surface was supportable but I could still plunge my pole into the wet snow below. The snowpack was stronger in the runout either from the old avalanche debris or the increased snowpack depth.

The snowpack was supportable on the route back to the trailhead.

Quote from Than: “Remember, If it snows tonight, we get to claim that we skied the dirtiest day of the season… so far.”

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Upper Slate, Purple Ridge.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More of the same. Mostly loose wet avalanches with some gouging deeply into the snowpack.

Weather: A little bit of everything. Cloud cover was alternating between partly cloudy and mostly cloudy. Some convective pulses pushed through and even a little rain.

Snowpack: The snowpack stayed supportive to boots through mid-day, then things felt like they were starting to deteriorate more quickly on my way home. Skiing was lovely, often grabby, and slow, and I even got chased by a pack of brown roller balls to keep it interesting. Was out to gather some equipment and didn’t tango with much avalanche terrain.

Dug into a 30-degree NE-facing slope at 10,800ft. The wetting front had made it about 40cm’s deep. It was just hitting an interface at this location. CTN in the upper snowpack. Loose wet avalanches looked like the primary hazard in this location.

Photos:

6229

Date of Observation: 04/12/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Various locations

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Adding a few more cornice falls and older avalanches observed this week to the database.

Photos:

6228

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Kebler Pass Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More large wet avalanches likely ran today or yesterday. And an older dry slab(!!!) triggered by cornice fall. See photos.

Photos:

6227

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few large wet slabs on Gothic ran today. A few large wet avalanches on Mt. CB ran yesterday evening.

Photos:

6226

Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Afternoon snowmobile tour to Scarp Ridge, Beaver Ponds TH, and Horse Ranch TH documenting wet avalanche patterns from the last few days.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: More wet action.  In summary, all of the large (D2+) avalanche activity (both wet slab and wet loose) has been happening on east, south, and west aspects, mostly near and below treeline, where meltwater is most intense right now. I saw a few wet slabs break near 12,000′ into above treeline type of terrain. These were all on rocky, shallow slopes facing SE. There’s still plenty of wet loose activity happening on NE and NW aspects but it’s still shallow and not gouging like the southern side is, and no wet slabs on the northern half of the compass thus far.
Weather: Hot.
Snowpack: A quick handpit on a 30 degree, SE facing slope at 12,000 feet this afternoon had wet snow about 6″ deep and moistening snow below that. The snowpack was generally supportive to sledding near and above treeline with track pen about 6″. It was trapdoor in a few low-elevation areas.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Turner Petersen

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: –

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose wet avalanche starting in complex terrain on S face of mt cb and hitting aspens at the bottom of a rarely seen slide path above the upper loop.
Weather: 53 in skyland
Snowpack: Flush the dust

Photos:

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