Snow Observations List

No details, came upon them while riding and making observations of the terrain. One was North-Northeast, the other was North-Northwest facing. Across the drainage from each other. 
Also, notice three other small avalanches on a west facing slope, about two miles east of the first two. All five were on slopes well over 30. In the centennial mountains, close to the continental on the Idaho/Montana border. 

From email: "Natural avalanche from yesterday evening or last night.  

North facing aspect, with an interesting 3 tiered crown beginning around 8900'."

We took our level 1 course up to the ridge between Beehive and Bear Basin. Skies oscillated between overcast and broken as light snow fell throughout the day with little to no accumulation. Winds were generally light, and no snow was being actively transported.

We descended a low angle east aspect down to about 8500' and found quality surface conditions and fun turns.  This week's snow comprised the upper 35 cm of the snowpack, was right side up, and generally well-bonded to the new/old interface below. Hand shears, up-track tests, and small test slopes were non-reactive.  We avoided any sustained slopes over 30 degrees and we saw no obvious signs of instability during our tour.

We dug two quick pits and performed an ECT in each. We found very similar poor structure in both pits and both ECT's propagated across the column within a layer of soft facets about 18" below the surface.

East aspect @ 8500', 28 degree slope

HS 90 - ECTP24 @ 44 cm 

90-55  F>4F>1F - This week's snow

55-50 - P - Rounded Grains -  January snow

50-35 - F - Facets

35-33 - 4F - Decomposing Crust/Facets

33-20 - F - Facets

20-Gnd - 1F - DH/Facets

East aspect @ 9100', 12 degree slope

HS 88 - ECTP11 @ 43 cm within a layer of fist-hard facets

Very similar structure to above, except for a 2 cm pencil hard MFcr at the interface below this week's snow capping a few cm of pencil hard rounds from January.

Fist-hard facet layer began at 47 cm and transitioned to 4F DH at 20 cm, with large and striated crystals visible to the naked eye.

On Mt. Blackmore we dug a pit on the east face near the ridgeline. We measured 10-12" of new snow that fell over the last week, equalling 0.7" of snow water equivalent. In the trees and less wind affected areas there were 14-16" recent snow, but we did not measure SWE there. In our snowpit on an east-facing slope at 9700' we found this new snow sitting on 2' of faceted snow, showing us that the structure is there to create avalanches. While stability tests were not remarkable with scores of ECTX and ECTP29, we did not feel like stepping into avalanche terrain was an appropriate decision for two reasons. First, we know the snowpack setup is capable of creating large avalanches and new snow will increase the likelihood of this. Second, recent wind has drifted the new snow into thicker denser slabs that will add additional weight to already unstable slopes. We saw clear signs of wind loading with fresh cornices forming at ridgelines and pillows of wind-drifted snow forming at the top of rollovers. While skiing out my partner and I both noted that the snow felt unsupportable with our skis breaking through to the facets below. We also discussed that as more snow and wind come this week dangerous avalanche conditions will continue to exist. 

Wind was calm and there was no new snow overnight. A small whumpf in the skin track was followed by a massive one a few minutes later. I can count on one hand the number of times I got whumpfs in a skin track...rare indeed. The second one was so big it had us both deeply concerned. We peeled off the skin track after deciding to not cross a gully and soon found debris from a sizeable avalanche that released a couple days ago about 500' above us. We dug in the flank and had 100 cm of snow, 60 cm new from last week. The snowfall during the Avalanche Warning, doubled the depth and more than doubled the snow water equivalent of the snowpack. It was a large load and avalanches are breaking underneath the new snow.

Karl was using his 100 cm long Norwegian Battle Saw (pic)...a bit overkill.

We observed three similar avalanches on Mt Abundance today (2/11). All were at about 9,900' and on NE-NW aspects. We were able to safely look at the crown of the first one, which was ~150' wide, 55cm deep, and with an HS of 145. It failed on 1-2 cm buried surface hoar. The other avalanches were on shallow unsupported rocky terrain. All were remote triggered from low angle terrain above, 20-50' away. One of the avalanches sympathetically released a gully and ran 800'.

Natural avalanches observed on east facing aspect of Miller Ridge on 2/11. Larger avalanche propagated widely on the north end of the ridge around 10,000 ft. Smaller avalanche further south on the ridge as well. 

We got the same feedback that Dave and Doug did on 2/5/24 - collapsing every time we stepped out of the skin track or turned with any force, as well as a few sizable collapses triggered from inside the skin track. Very touchy, skied very well. Stayed well away from avy terrain.

We got the same feedback that Dave and Doug did on 2/5/24 - collapsing every time we stepped out of the skin track or turned with any force, as well as a few sizable collapses triggered from inside the skin track. Very touchy, skied very well. Stayed well away from avy terrain.

From IG message: “It looks like the lawn mower up north deep creek slide full path. Looking through Bino’s from the valley it looked fairly fresh. Multiple fracture lines up at the starting point. I assume it went naturally”

From IG: “Here is a big avalanche remotely triggered yesterday up lionshead area”

Driving up the canyon this morning, 3-4 fresh slides can be spotted on Baldy and Saddle Peak

From FB 2/10/24: "Another view of White peak south along ridge in UPR TeePee basin slide from wailer this week. Looked like was from a rider earlier this week. This view was from the slopes south of Lee Metcalf Wilderness boundary looking toward SW."

From IG 2/10/24: “Multiple avalanches in the northern lions head on the eastern half of the compass. All were at around 8,500 feet.”

From IG 2/10/24: “East aspect, southwest of island park from the blue creek trailhead.”

From email on 02/10/2024: "Yesterday, I skied a few Submarine and a few Woody Ridge laps. Collapsing/shooting cracks were widespread and thunderous. Snowfall totals seemed closer to 12” unsettled, with minimal wind. Biggest collapses were near the ridgecrest (1st pic was an impressive shooting crack). 

Today heading up Republic, we observed the crown of a recent avy on Woody Ridge north (pic 2). I wondered for a sec if I had remoted it yesterday but I was further south. The avy looked to originate around 9800’ on a west (slight north) aspect in rocky terrain. Appeared natural from what we could see from the drainage. 

We skied a zone south of woody proper, and had less but still pretty regular collapsing and cracking, though steep tester slopes were nonreactive to ski cuts, surprisingly. Still very little wind. "

Whumphing, collapsing and shooting cracks on all aspects, at all elevations. The longest shooting crack went over 100' long, shot right out in front of me on a 24deg E aspect slope. Propagating collapses out to 40 feet or so, very thin overall snowpack. Moderately nice turns on low angle slopes above 7300 but had to be very careful not to bottom out.

From my high point, it looked like the entirety of the large avalanche path on Ernie Miller Ridge E face slid recently, obvious crown on lookers L side and appeared to go wall to wall for the path (R4+). Unknown if natural.  

Very obviously terrible snowpack, it's total garbage out there. 

As we were coming out, I spotted this cracking above the creek. A sled has passed nearby on the right side ( you can see the track). The snow cracked and was starting to rub in the left (barely). 

It was above the creek and could have created a trap for someone below. 

This is just below the cabin Creek cabin where all the stands coverage. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KyH21E7a9vts2UAF6