Observations

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Augusta to Purple to Yule Pass.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Large recent natural avalanches on west side of Augusta, northeast side of Blob and Purple, and east sides of Purple and Angel Pass. Most of these looked like persistent slabs that ran in the last few days, a couple may have been storm slabs.

Photos:

5721

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range from Lake Irwin to OBJ Basin

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural persistent slab avalanches from D1.5 to D2.5 on NW to NE to SE aspects N/ATL. See photos.

Photos:

5720

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Irwin

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Southeast bowl of Ruby Peak ran this afternoon around 2:30. ~D2.5

Photos:

5719

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Anthracites and East Beckwith.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous large persistent slabs that ran sometime in the past few days on NW to E aspects ATL, in addition to the slides Eric documented yesterday.

Photos:

5718

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Outside of forecast area: Aspen Zone
Route Description: Aspen zone just north of Schofield Pass, in the Fravert and Hasley Basin areas. This is north of our outside of our forecast area, but the crowns are worth checking out…

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous large persistent slab avalanches, mostly on E to NE aspects ATL. Many of these appeared very fresh, likely ran yesterday.

Photos:

5716

Date of Observation: 12/09/2022
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler

Zone: Outside of forecast area
Route Description: West Elk Wilderness from Baldies to Castles. This area is outside of our forecast area, to the southwest, but the crowns are worth checking out…

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several large persistent slab avalanches from NE to SE aspects ATL that ran in the past few days.

Photos:

5715

Date of Observation: 12/08/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Southeast slope of Schuylkill Ridge

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: From the text message – “Popped a shallow storm slab first pitch then great pow!”.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

5714

Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Pavement obs from the road.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few more avalanches from Whetstone and one deep avalanche from Treasury. Hard to time avalanche release but a few crowns looked sharp while others were likely from around Tuesday 12/6. The crown on Treasure looks very deep and the view was poor so I did not code it until a better image comes around.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

5713

Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiled Kebler Pass to West Beckwith.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Lots of large natural avalanches were observed near/above treeline on the north half of the compass in the Anthracite Range, East Beckwith, and West Beckwith. Some avalanches appeared very fresh, within the past 24 hours, while others appeared to be closer to 48 hours from the tail end of Tuesday’s storm. Visibility was marginal; I observed many debris piles with obscured start zones, or binoculared a crown but was unable to photograph before losing visibility. I coded avalanches in the attached photos.

Did not observe any avalanches below treeline.

I got a few glimpses into southerly terrain north of Dark Canyon, and southeasterly terrain on Marcellina and did not observe any obvious large avalanches.
Weather: Snowfall tapering off by 10 am. Partly to mostly cloudy skies. Westerly winds were transporting moderate amounts of snow at upper elevations. 24-hour snowfall totals ranged from 2 to 5 inches along the Kebler Pass roadway.
Snowpack: I took a moment to dig a profile on a northerly slope at 9,000 feet near Horse Ranch Park. Snow depth was 80cm. The bottom 15cm was 2-3mm depth hoar, with around 30cm of 1-finger and 4-finger hardness slab above, and about 35cm of lower-density recent snow at the surface. I was able to walk around in boots and not punch through the slab. I believe I collapsed the site as I approached on my snowmobile. The snowpack in the western parts (west of Kebler Pass) of the Northwest Mountains seems to match well with the rest of the zone in the Ruby Range based on the profile and snow coverage in alpine terrain.

Photos:

5712

Date of Observation: 12/08/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Flat light views of Mt. Axtell at sunset.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Fresh slab avalanche to the ground in 6th Bowl (NE to maybe E facing). Two brown stains on 5th bowl and Wang Chung face that I didn’t see yesterday, but I couldn’t confirm crowns or debris in the flat light, so I’ll code later if we get a better look.

Photos:

5711