Observations

Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Sam Micka

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up to the goal post on Emmons (via standard skin track), laps on the upper glades. Ski out standard exit

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Observed some naturals in the bowl but visibility did not allow a full picture of the slope.

Weather: Overcast, light snow, winds ~10mph above 11500, poor visibility.

Snowpack: Widespread collapsing and cracking above 11500 ft. About 5 or so inches of fresh powder. Photos include a shooting crack just off the standard skin track, some naturals in the bowl, and coverage from the “goal post” looking towards axtell and carbon.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snodgrass Trailhead toward Gothic townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was fading but there was evidence of a large slide in Coon Basin. E-NE aspect.
I remote-triggered a small avalanche from the flats just off the road on an East aspect.
Weather: Increasing clouds and moderate snow mid morning.
Snowpack: Reactive. Every small test slope with older snow collapsed and cracked with little effort. Found one that finally ran after the collapse on a steeper slope that had been previously wind loaded.

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Date of Observation: 12/03/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic

Weather: Wind Friday started moderate with strong gusting but by the afternoon was a steady blizzard with gusts around 40-50 mph- worst since last spring and the reason why people move to milder climates in winter. The snow was dense and wind driven so for the day there was 3″ new with water of 0.44″. Wind let up in the evening and it cleared and cooled with clouds returning around 3-4 a.m. The temperature rose from the low of 3F to the current 11 after a daytime high yesterday of 27. Currently cloudy and calm with 18″ on the ground, down from the hgh of 19″

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Driving into town.,

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: natural avalanche off Gibson Ridge immediately above the defensive berms. Did not look big enough to bury a person but probably take you for a ride.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Daniel K

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Started at Wash. Gulch winter TH and headed up to 10800 on the furthest north of the west facing bowls on Snodgrass.

Observed avalanche activity: No

Weather: Windy enough at the TH to consider bailing. It had calmed down significantly by the time we finished a little after dark

Snowpack: HS ranged from 45cm at the deepest and barely anything on some of the scoured aspects. Some sporadic crust/facet basal layers found in flat areas and W aspects above 10200. One medium collapse on this layer around 10400 on 25-30 degree W slope and a few small collapses lower down in flats. No storm slab encountered, though wind effect gave some cream to the surface. Right side up everywhere we found new snow directly on the ground surface

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: NE all day. Started at 9600′ up to 10,800′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Vis was poor on the sled ride up but we had one window which I noticed a disturbance in the snow BTL on a NE aspect. I assumed it was debris from a long-running slide path off the uphill ridge. Without binoculars, too hard to tell. On our ascent, we (obviously) felt, heard, and saw many signs of an incredibly unstable snowpack. Again, “touchy” is the word. Once on the ridge, above a suspect slope which is barely 30 degrees, one of my ski partners very easily kicked off a small slide which gouged to ground and funneled into the trees. Although not a large avalanche due to slope angle and terrain feature, it would have been a scary ride. On the ascent for our the second lap, we triggered another storm slab from about 100′ vertical below. Slab moved about 1′ at the apex and fractured most of the adjacent terrain (to ground), but low slope angle and small area meant that it didn’t quite have enough energy to fully rip.

Weather: Blustery and snowy

Snowpack: Most pole probes went to about 60cm on average. Relatively dense storm snow on top of garbage. Downhill was fun.

Photos:

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Our first snowpack summary of the year is here.  A dryspell in late November caused the snowpack to become very weak, setting us up for dangerous conditions once the storm track returned.

CBAC early season snowpack summary

Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Area Tour. Northerly, 10,000ft to 11,500ft

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered a couple of small slides. The first was while descending small, but steep terrain. The 2nd was while bouncing for a collapse, resulting in a remotely triggered avalanche from about 25 feet away.

Weather: Strong winds and blowing snow most of the day. Hard to gauge how much it was snowing vs blowing.

Snowpack: HST was about 20cm by 1 pm at 10,500ft. A distinct layer of graupel near the base of the storm and plenty of graupel mixed in with other perception particles within the storm now. Thick and supportive new snow. Made the low angles ski really well. Total HS in the area is around 100 to 120cm.

Lots of collapses and shooting cracks in the snowpack, as has been normal lately. Each time I looked, those cracks were extending down to the weak sandbox near the base of the snowpack.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Crested Butte, gladed low angle skiing on northerly aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Ski triggered a couple of 12″ soft slabs breaking on our weak facet layer on small rollovers in the trees. Saw results from mitigation teams on Horseshoe that failed on the storm interface and old facet layers, D1 in size.
Weather: Moderate snowfall rates and strong winds with periods of intense wind transport.

Photos:

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Date of Observation: 12/02/2022
Name: Zach Kinler

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: East ditch trail above 4th and Red Lady

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy with nnow squalls. Moderate West wind in open areas.
Snowpack: On an afternoon dog walk, I was able to collapse just about every small slope I stepped on producing shooting cracks. These features were not big enough to run but larger ones certainly would have. Westerly winds were moving snow in open areas below treeline. 6-7″ of new snow from this storm, which was fairly dense.

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