Observations

Date of Observation: 12/13/2022
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Skin Track-Red Lady Glades

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast, Light snow, light wind up high, calm down low.
Snowpack: Broke trail up Red Lady skin track. Quiet until near tree line. Small collapses on pillows behind tree fences near tree line. Isolated collapses and short shooting cracks on hardish windboard on windward terrain just below ridgetop above tree line. One larger collapse on low angle west-ish facing terrain in a meadow around aspens lower down on the descent.

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Date of Observation: 12/12/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Brush Creek TH to West Brush Creek. Tour in the Union Chutes area.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of natural avalanches from last week were observed on east and northeast terrain near and below treeline.
Weather: Cloudy skies produced light snowfall from 1230 to 2pm with sporadic snow through 330. Accumulations less than an inch. Southwesterly winds drifted snow at ridgetop with light loading onto easterly alpine start zones.
Snowpack: The snowpack remains fairly shallow, less than 2 feet, below 9,500 feet near the confluence of Brush and West Brush Creeks. Snow depth increased as I traveled the few miles up West Brush Creek. Snow depth near the valley bottom by Teocalli, around 10,000 feet, on east and northeast terrain was about 90cm and slowly increased to around 105cm around 11,200 feet. Close to valley bottom, I produced some moderate size collapsing. Near 11,000 feet and above I struggled to get a collapse even with booting into the weak layer but finally got one loud, rumbling collapse after numerous attempts. Snow pit tests produced moderate propagating test results on the basal facets (see photo).  Fewer signs of instability than I expected, but the same poor structure above the untrustworthy basal facets.

Photos:

5743

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pittsburg Rollers area, up to 10,500 ft on north to northeast aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Nothing new today. Filling in some previously undocumented persistent slabs from the 12/6-12/8 cycle. See photos.
Weather: Unseasonably warm and sunny
Snowpack: Widespread 1mm to 3mm surface hoar below about 10,000 feet on shady aspects, with minor near surface faceting elsewhere on the snow surface.
After venturing away from the regularly traveled areas, we tried getting collapses by skinning, stomping skis, and then punching boots through the slab a few times. Only one of the boot pen attempts produced a rumbling collapse. Tests produced hard, propagating results on a F+ layer of rounding facets buried below an 80 cm slab up to 1F hard. The failure occurred just below the thin rime/rain crust that formed back in November. See pit.

Photos:

5741

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Ian Havlick

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up from Gunsight bridge to upper Wolverine Basin.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Pretty much a war zone starting from
Climax chutes all the way to top with lots of little steep convex features having failed since the snow stopped 3 days ago. Lots of road cuts and larger features- anything over 35 degrees highly suspect
Weather: Clear, calm, cold
Snowpack: Snowpack structure similar to other observations submitted, F>1F slab resting on 20cm of large grained depth hoar. Most notable observation was widely distributed 4-6mm surface hoar on aspects traveled (N-NE-E) from 9000-11000ft. Will be worth watching with incoming snow tonight.

Photos:

5740

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Alex B

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard uptrack on the east side of the creek into baxter basin and up to the south side of cascade.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: No cracking, collapsing or new avalanches observed. Isolated natural cycle in alpine terrain features in the last 48-72hrs.
Weather: Clear. Calm valley winds gusting to moderate from the SW at ridgetop. Mild temps with strong solar input.
Snowpack: Targeted one shallow slope and one deeper terrain feature. HS ranged from 90-170cm.
NW 10200′ moderate results from multiple handshears failing on 2-3mm well-preserved graupple down 45cm.
NW 10400′ CT22 RP down 65cm failing on the 2-3mm graupple.
The slab above this interface progressively stiffens to a 1f slab above and to a pencil hard slab below. The bottom 15cm of the snowpack are large grained facets.

5739

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Up Anthracite Mesa via Washington Gulch TH

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: No new avalanches observed
Weather: Sunny and pleasant, calm winds.
Snowpack: This is a zone that has seen no traffic so the slab/weak layer was unmolested. I got rumbling collapses in every open area and some areas within the trees. Most often these collapses shook the snow off of trees in the surrounding area. A pit at 10,800′ on an East aspect produced and ECTP13 on 2-3 mm facets near the ground under a 45cm slab up to 1F. Stomped above a couple of steeper slopes with no results however these appear to have avalanched in early December with around 10 inches of low-density snow in the bed surface.

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5738

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red lady bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: D2-3 R2-3 remote triggered SE side of bowl from the SW side of bowl. Was not carried buried or injured. Really close call.

Photos:

5736

Date of Observation: 12/11/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Bowl

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A solo skier on the looker’s right side of the bowl remotely triggered the looker’s left side of the bowl after descending into the benches near the bottom of the main bowl. The skier reported that there were no involvements.

Photos:

5735

Date of Observation: 12/10/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled out to Upper Cement and skied near Hunter Hill and Timbered Hill up to 12,300′ traveling on various aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The southeast face of Castle Peak has a fresh crown that appears to be triggered today by a very small dribbler from a cornice. We did not see the slide on yesterday’s flight and flew right by it. Documenting a few other persistent slabs that ran sometime in the past few days that we missed because of the flight route, flat light, or maybe one ran after our flight.
Weather: Rapid warming, from near zero temps this morning to near-freezing temps mid-day. Light ridgetop winds and mostly clear skies.
Snowpack: Below treeline continues to produce fairly frequent collapses. Once we gained elevation to near treeline, the slabs get noticeably thicker and harder, and collapses became less common. We would occasionally trigger one from near a tree or on the margin of a drift. Test results on a NTL east-facing slope produced hard, propagating results on 2-3mm F+ facets below a 75 cm slab up to 1F. HS ranges from 60 cm near the bottom of Waterfall Trail (9,800′), to 90 cm just below Friends Hut (11,000′). Snow surfaces got moist or wet today on sunny aspects to at least 11,800′ and produced a few rollerballs.

Photos:

5733

Date of Observation: 12/10/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Low elevations Purple Ridge avalanche ob

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural avalanches on east and northeast slopes immediately above the first switchback at the head of Slate River valley. There appears to be very little snow refilled on the bed surface suggesting it ran sometime later in the day on Thursday or after.  Image texted to CBAC staff.

Photos:

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