Observations

Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Mt. Axtell, traveled mostly on N to E aspects to 11,900′.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered and observed a few natural loose avalanches, small in size (D1). Ski cut a small wind slab about 6′ wide, 12″ deep on a crossdrifted north facing slope NTL (D1). There was a thin natural windslab below ridgeline in 4th Bowl, about 4″ deep.
Weather: Partly to mostly cloudy with a few afternoon flurries (S-1). Light winds, no transport.
Snowpack: About 4″ to 5″ of storm snow, delineated by a prominent dust layer near the bottom of the storm. I found a few drifts up to a foot thick in typical locations; ski cuts and stomps were unproductive except one small pocket. It seems most of the wind transport here happened early in the storm before there was much snow available for transport. The last few inches of snow were relatively unaffected by wind and also concealed some of the previous drifting textures.

Photos:

6201

Date of Observation: 04/05/2023
Name: Travis Colbert

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch TH; W & E sides of Snodgrass; 9,400-11,000 ft mostly SW & NE aspects.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Fresh dust on a red, dusty crust; with the first dust mentioned quickly turning to mush. Tomorrow I must venture to Saleeda to tread lightly on red, dusty dust.

This riddle, or is it a poem, was inspired by all the bad (good) riddles of Ted Lasso (I have been binge watching) and to a lesser degree by yesterday’s historic indictment of our illustrious/notorious (depending on your persuasion) Donald J Trump :)

OK, for real, sunny aspects were supportive to skis (dust on crust as described above), while the more northerly aspects were dry & soft.

Photos:

6200

Date of Observation: 04/04/2023
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass to Scarp Ridge on snowmobile and ski tour around the Anthracites.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Visibility was poor much of the day, but I could see storm snow debris on a drifted easterly slope near treeline at the top of the Playground in the Anthracites. This feature has a large fetch for gathering snow.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with consistent light snow with a few short periods of S2. Storm total of 6 inches around 4pm at 11,000 feet. Moderate wind speeds on near treeline ridgeline.  It is hard to miss the dust at the base of the storm snow, yuck.
Snowpack: Crusts at the old snow surface, just over 11,000 feet, were 3-4cm on southeast slopes, 2cm on east terrain, and thinned away as you move into northeast aspects. North-facing slopes in this area remain fully dry and provided nice turns. I was able to produce a few shooting cracks on drifted near treeline features, but fetches were relatively small so wind slab formation was only a few inches thick.

Photos:

6198

Date of Observation: 04/03/2023
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skied down east brush creek from Friends Hut on 4/3

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One notable slab avalanche that ran later in the day on 4/2 during the warm up. The avalanche occurred on an ESE slope below treeline in the Timbered Hill Chutes. The crown was at 11,400’ on the shoulder of the 2nd THC path downstream from the Friends Hut. The avalanche looked to step down through the 3/30 interface into deeper March interfaces.

There was also plenty of remnants of wet loose activity on death pass. Roller balls and cinnamon rolls galore.
Weather: Cloudy and windy.
Snowpack: The super highway was nice and fast

Photos:

6196

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Megan Paden

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Star Pass area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of fresh wind slabs on east side of Crystal and Hunter.
Cornice drop on Star.
No large persistent slabs observed in this area.
One wet loose on an easterly slope near Italian.

Photos:

6195

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Morning tour on Mt. Emmons, traveling on southerly and northerly aspects to 12,000′

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several notable large avalanches that ran sometime since Evan was on Mt. Emmons yesterday morning. These likely ran during Saturday afternoon’s peak warming, or the cornice falls could have happened overnight. Plus a few older wind slabs that likely ran during Friday’s storm.
-A second cornice fall in Redwell Basin, extending dirty debris further than the slide in the same area that Evan documented yesterday, and prying out a couple of slabs in the upper snowpack, ~D2.5 to D3 in size.
-Several wide D2 to D2.5 storm slabs that ran on the southwest side of Schuylkill Ridge to valley floor in OBJ, snapping several trees.
-A large wind slab in Peeler Basin that was triggered by cornice fall, D2.
Weather: Strong winds above treeline and moderate winds below treeline were helping to keep snow surfaces cool today. Winds appeared to be sublimating the drifting snow  more than loading. Few clouds. Spring temps.
Snowpack: Skied steep, north-facing terrain with no signs of instability. On solar aspects, crusts started to soften around 11 or noon. I didn’t see any active rollerballs or wet loose activity by the time we left at 1 p.m. I stomped around above a wind-loaded east-facing slope midday and couldn’t produce any signs of instability.

Photos:

6194

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: SE Mountain FX area

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 4 cornice avalanches that failed since Friday. 2 above Copper Creek on a SE aspect at 12,000ft. Another 2 in the Hidden Lake Bowl of Mt Whetstone on a northerly facing slope at 12,200ft. The Hidden Lake Bowl cornices may be repeat offenders similar to those that keep falling into Redwell.

Photos:

6193

Date of Observation: 04/02/2023
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River to Cascade

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: The natural loose wet avalanche activity has remained fairly minimal, with fewer small loose wet avalanches and more roller balls.

Got a closer look at the natural slab avalanche, that ran late Saturday afternoon, above the Slate River Rd. This avalanche ran on a SW aspect at 10,800ft. The best guess is that this was a natural storm slab avalanche that failed during the rapid warming event that occurred on Saturday. The slab looked to have run on the old snow interface. Near the avalanche debris, the top 10 cm of the snowpack had become wet and the remaining storm snow below was dry.

Weather: Partly Cloudy, Light to moderate winds with blowing snow off the high peaks.

Snowpack: The wind was penetrating to valley level and helping keep snow surfaces somewhat cool. Loose wet avalanches appeared to be more problematic yesterday. The wind in the alpine looked like it was doing more eroding than actual wind-loading.

Photos:

6192

The weekly summary is here. Spring continued to be on hold at the start of the week as a series of storms rolled through the valley. Warming temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday initiated wet loose avalanches, some of which triggered larger persistent slabs.

Weekly Summary March 24-30, 2023 COMPRESSED

Date of Observation: 04/01/2023
Name: Insta Gram

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: West Beckwith

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Slab avalanche that broke deeply on a crossloaded S to SE facing slope either today or yesterday.

Photos:

6189