Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Kebler Pass
Aspect: North, South East
Elevation: 10,000 – 11,500′

Avalanches: Limited visibility obscured views of most near and above treeline terrain.
-A few small natural wind slabs on east and southeast aspects near and below treeline that ran last night or today. These all looked to be about 6″ to 8″ thick
-A small persistent slab that looks like it was unintentionally skier triggered from below the slope, about 18″ thick on a southeast aspect below treeline
Weather: Overcast. Light to moderate NW winds where we traveled, drifting visible in exposed terrain. A few pulses of moderate snowfall (S2), but generally light snowfall or lulls through the day, with 1″ to 2″ of accumulation.
Snowpack: About 6″ of new snow that felt topheavy from the increased wind speeds late in the storm. Easy to produce cracking in wind affected snow. Plenty of evidence of drifting overnight, even on exposed below treeline slopes.
We traveled mostly below treeline on existing skin tracks and areas that have seen a fair amount of traffic this week. Stepping away from tracks, I got a few small collapses and one large collapse on north and southeast aspects. Pits at these locations showed easy to moderate propagating results, 1 to 2 feet down on the 1/19 facet layer. See photos. We ski cut a few steep slopes with no results.

 

Photos:

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Splains Gulch
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10500

Avalanches: Small R .5 observed on the open meadow above splains Gulch road
Weather: 6/8 sky cover
Light snow

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Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Sasha Legere

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Anthracites

Avalanches: See photo

 

 

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Date of Observation: 01/29/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

 

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Elkton area
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 9,400′ – 11,200′

 

Avalanches: Remotely triggered a small, D1, avalanche on a steep east-facing slope at 11,100′ with previous drifting.
Weather: Mostly cloudy day, but with a few bits of sun and greenhousing. Winds picked up dramatically just after noon. Snow transport was visible across near and above treeline terrain throughout the Ruby Range for a few hours.
Snowpack: Experienced a few small, quiet collapses on drifty near treeline terrain. Dug a test profile adjacent to a remotely triggered avalanche. Slope that avalanched was around 38 degrees (measured from the side not on bed surface might be a bit steeper). Steep, previously drifted slopes remain a concern and seem sensitive to human triggering on the upper Persistent Slab interface.  This interface will likely be a real concern with the incoming storm. Descended a 25-degree southeast-facing slope at about 10,400′ feet that had dry surface snow….noticed a few rollerballs on a steep more southerly feature.

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Date of Observation: 01/29/2021

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Purple Ridge
Aspect: East
Elevation: 11,600ft

Avalanches: Remotely triggered a large avalanche from a lower angled slope, connected to a steeper slope. After no signs to instability all day, finally found just the right spot to punch through the slab, into the weak layer, and get a collapse. No shooting cracks in the terrain where the collapse occurred, but within a few seconds the larger bowl started to avalanche. The avalanche ran on the slower side, no powder cloud. It was large in size and propagated widely. This slope has avalanche previously this season. The crown is estimated to have averaged about 40 to 45 cm, while the deepest part of the crown where it broke into a cornice was closer to 110 cm.

Weather: Mostly cloudy to overcast sky. Warm temps. Alpine winds picking up in the afternoon and transporting snow.

Snowpack: No other signs to instability. A few roller balls on steep S and SW aspects at lower elevations.

Date of Observation: 01/29/2021

Name: Jared Berman

Zone: Crested Butte Backcountry

 

After a brutal dry spell that left us doing all sorts of snow dancing for the answer…..We measured snow in inches and feet this week. There’s never been a better time to check out the weekly snowpack summary

 

 

Date of Observation: 01/28/2021
Name: Zach Guy

 

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Washington Gulch
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: N/ATL

 

Avalanches: Nothing new that wasn’t reported yesterday morning.
Weather: Thin overcast to broken, greenhousing. Light summit winds.
Snowpack: Rec skiing so we spent the day traveling in terrain where we didn’t expect to find instabilities: non-windloaded, south and southwest aspects. The 1/19 crust (over facets) is about 5cm thick and did not produce any signs of instability on steeper terrain. On flatter slopes, we got a couple of collapses where the crust was thinner. There’s about 45 cm slab up to 4F on the 1/19 layers.

 

Date of Observation: 01/27/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

 

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Baldy south ridge up to southeast ridge down
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,400 – 12,600

 

Avalanches: A handful of fresh avalanches with crowns looking sharp. D2 in the Martini on Richmond, D2 near Martini on an unsupported slope that triggered slope below, D2 near Ohbejoyful Peak, D2 Afley peak – all northeast and above treeline. A lil’ family of D1 Storm Slabs near Elkton below treeline on a steep east-facing feature from this past weekend (several inches of snow subduing crown and bed surface)
Weather: Mostly clear skies before noon then mostly cloudy in the PM over the Ruby Range – very light snowfall as well when clouds rolled in. Moderate westerly winds transported snow above treeline for most of the day (some near treeline but not as consistent). Loading looked reasonably efficient on many alpine peaks/ridges in the Ruby Range. Looking to the east towards White/White Rock massif noticed very little drifting (not sure if winds were relaxed or there is just less available snow for transport in the area)
Snowpack: I moved through a variety of southeast and easterly terrain features near and above treeline without signs of instability. Only jumped on smaller slopes or those close to 30 degrees or less. Minimal cracking on small drifted features even with active loading – snow felt a bit top-heavy. Was able to kick off a few human-sized cornice chunks on an actively loaded ESE alpine face without result – snow felt top-heavy but still soft and fist hard. Dug a profile on a drifted easterly-facing feature near treeline without propagating results, but the structure looks untrustworthy at the 1/19 interface (see photo). SE slopes in this area had a poor-looking facet/crust weak layer below that past week’s snow, but I wasn’t able to find more than 12″ of fist hard snow resting above so I did not perform any stability tests.

 

Photos:

 

Date of Observation: 01/27/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains

Avalanches: See photos. A handful of large natural slab avalanches on leeward terrain near and above treeline (easterly aspects) that all look like they ran last night or yesterday afternoon. Most appear to be on the 1/19 facet layer, and a few wind slabs.

 

Photos:

Date of Observation: 01/26/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Upper Slate
Aspect: North East, East, South East, West
Elevation: 9700 – 10900′

Avalanches: Ski cut a couple of thin wind slabs below treeline, about 6″ thick, that formed this afternoon, D1.
Got good views of the large avalanche reported yesterday from Schuylkill Ridge. Based on the size of the crown, I estimate that it failed on the 1/19 interface about 18″ deep and gouged near to the ground. That path ran in mid-December and the snowpack prior to this recent storm was very thin. See photo.
Saw another persistent slab (probably 1/19 interface) that likely ran in the past 24 hours, triggered by a sluff from a cliff band above on an east aspect BTL. D1.5
Had good views of other terrain visible from the Slate River Road and didn’t see anything else noteworthy.
Weather: Light snowfall (S-1 to S1) started around noon, with a few moderate pulses (S2) mid-afternoon. W/NW winds showed up around 2 p.m. – moderate with strong gusts produced light to moderate snow transport where we traveled, which was mostly below treeline.
Snowpack: Recent storm snow has settled noticeably since my tour yesterday on Kebler Pass. There’s about 16″ of F+/4F- soft slab over the 1/19 interface. We experienced a couple of large collapses and a handful of smaller, muffled collapses. A few stability tests on both east and west aspects below treeline showed similar structures and non-propagating results. The snow surface was getting denser due to this afternoon’s winds.
We kept to generally simple terrain and a few short, steeper pitches. We didn’t have any avalanche encounters other than some small wind slabs.

 

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