Vermont Snow & Avalanche Observations
2022/2023
3/31/2023
Dennis Kramer-Smugglers Notch
Skier triggered wind slab in a slide on the west side (Mansfield side) of Smugglers Notch. We were descending into a choke on the slide, skiing one at a time. My partner was the first to drop, skiing into the choke by way of a steep roll over when a slab released several feet above him. He was able to dig skis into the firm surface underneath and let the debris wash over him without getting knocked off his feet. The slab broke to a depth of about 7 inches (hand height), with the week layer being the interface between Wednesday night’s new snow and the refrozen surface from earlier this week. It broke 10 feet wide and sent debris through the choke 20-30 feet down. Because we descended from above, we saw no signs of weakness prior to this event other than the expected sloughing. We had seen Luke Schaefer’s observation from the day before in Hourglass and had discussed the need to be aware of this problem, but had assumed that once we were off the ridge we would be on less exposed terrain with a lower chance of bigger slab accumulation. Reflecting on the terrain trap nature of the choke and the steep rollover above it, we should have entered it more cautiously with the expectation that it might release. Fortunately, we could ski away from this learning opportunity with no damage done.
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3/30/2023
Luke Schaefer-Climbing Gully on Mt. Mansfield ~3800'. East aspect
We ascended from the resort side before opening with the goal of skiing profanity or hourglass. Upon reaching climbing gully, we noticed isolated pockets of windslab 4-8" of depth and shooting cracks. Due to these red flags, we ruled out skiing the more consequential lines and instead went 2/3 of the way up climbing gully to transition. I positioned myself on south/west wall of the gully (ENE aspect) to take videos of my friends descending. When it was my turn to drop, I traversed further across the gully wall to find a suitable entrance. I dropped in on what I thought was good snow, but the micro feature of the side wall was steep enough to slide, and it broke above me about 5" down and propagated ~15 feet wide. I was swept off my feet and carried about 20 feet, but luckily it settled upon reaching the mellower angle of the gully proper. This was a good reminder to always be on the lookout for small features that could serve as start zones in otherwise mellow terrain, and that a "plan B" might not totally eliminate your avalanche risk.
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3/15/2023
Dr. David Watson-Mad River Glen
I heard the snow settling a bunch of times. There was a sound similar to how ice settles on a frozen lake when skating. There was a substantial layer of snow and windblown snow on top of the underlying snowpack. The slide was triggered when I jumped off a cliff and slid down a slab of a frozen waterfall. There were a series of wind loaded ice waterfalls and cliffs. I heard a big settling sound multiple times. I would say that the cliffs were facing northwest and there was a lot of tree canopy. I am not sure how steep the slope was but it was a cliffed out area with a another steep area below the cliffs. I swam in the snow but I became inverted sort of and I had to clip out of my skis to figure out which way was up or down. I used my helmet to dig myself out. The snow was very light and easy to move but the base layer was chunky and icy. I heard the same warning signs a few years ago in the same spot but I ignored the settling signs just simply out of the belief that an avalanche or a slide was not possible.
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3/3/2022
Berrett Walter-Hidden Gully Smugglers Notch State Park
No evidence or rain or mixed precipitation, appeared to only be snow that fell during the day Thursday and into Thursday night. Observed varying degrees of wind loading and instability in hidden gully this morning. Observed wind loading from 1/4"wind skin to 8"- 1ft hard wind slab on either side of the gully. Triggered several small soft wind slabs on the skin track (D1 R1) but with high energy, propagating across the slope. This informed and dictated our assent. Digging several hand pits indicated varying levels of stability. At 2700ft at the base on the apron we observed evidence of heavy wind loading and a hand pit indicated a hard wind slab that was easily triggered with a clean shear. This informed our decision to transition and descend. Hasty pits on the approach indicated that snow in the gully proper was well bonded and not wind loaded. A ski cut across the gully failed to trigger any release, we enjoyed great skiing all the way down to the road.
In short, extremely variable wind loading/stability, dig lots of hasty pits, and assess as you go and you can enjoy some great skiing in the notch.
2/27/2023
James O'Donnell-Smugglers Notch Area
6” crown wet slide triggered of wet, sun effected snow on a crust layer. SSW aspect, 2200’ 10’ wide, 40’ long, snowboarder triggered.
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2/22/2023
Dennis Kramer-Summit of Mt. Mansfield and Smuggler's Notch
After last night's quick snowfall, I ventured up to the Chin on Mt. Mansfield to ski Hourglass chute. On the skin up from the gondola, I observed some cracks shooting away from my skis. I found a test slope to jump on and didn't notice a ton of movement, but was preparing for the expectation that new snow was not going to bond well with the slicker refrozen surface beneath. When skiing into the chute, I ended up flushing a bunch of unconsolidated snow down the chute before getting into the choke. Snow was generally releasing at my ski so fortunately nothing was pulling me down with it, but at one of my turns I could see that the snow that released left about an 8 inch crown (see first picture). Second picture shows the rest of the chute after snow flushed through.
Following this, I skied one of the slides on the Mansfield side of the notch and continued to see similar sluffing/loose blocks releasing at my ski in steeper sections, leaving behind a firmer bed surface for me to ski. See third pic that shows a smaller crown (3-4 inches) and some blocks that released but didn't slide very far. Reflecting on this outing, I think I took more risk than I should have given the obvious poor bonding between the firm refrozen layer and new snow, but feel fortunate that all the movement I observed had a tendency to release at my ski and slide away from me without threatening to pull me down with it.
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2/14/2023
Simon Abramson-Cass Gully
Today’s turns almost came at a serious cost. While getting ready to drop in a gust of wind knocked off some ice from above sending down football sized chunks of ice less than a foot from my head and where my partner had just been standing. It also trigger a small sluff avalanche right next to me. The original plan had been to transition where the sluff avalanche was which would have also been directly in the path of the ice debris, lucky we had decided to transition in a somewhat sheltered area off to the side of it. Even though it was a small avalanche it would have definitely been enough to carry me or my partner into consequential terrain bellow. Just a friendly reminder that even though 90% of avalanche fatalities are caused by a skier or someone in the skiers party there are still factors that we can not mitigate other than completely avoiding them. Significant wind drifted snow of south facing aspects. Observed shooting cracks.
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2/14/2023
Berrett Walter -Mansfield Area
Skier triggered D1 R2 soft slab avalanche with 4 inch crown at 3400ft on eastern facing 35 degree slope. Minimal energy/propagation but highly reactive snowpack.
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2/13/2023
Berrett Walter-Amherst Chute on Mount Mansfield
4-6" of light snow on a breakable crust layer. Skier triggered a D1 R1 Loose Snow Avalanche. Point of release was around 3300ft on a 45 degree northeast facing slope. Inconsequential slide, not strong enough to knock a skier off their feet and able to ski out of the slide path without risk of any terrain traps.
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2/3/2023
Dennis Kramer-Smugglers Notch
Light morning snow (1-2 inches at Barnes Camp) and high winds allowed for the creation of firm wind slabs in the vicinity of 2600’ on the east facing side of the notch up Cass’ gully. Slabs were reactive to skier weight, sending out shooting cracks that broke to a depth of about 3 inches and releasing small blocks. Ski surface was grabby and variable, shifting from wind scoured, to soft unconsolidated, to consolidated slab. Extremely cold temperatures and strong gusts made risk mitigation difficult, where staying warm and keeping skin covered was high priority. Boot penetration further up into Cass’ gully varied from boot deep to knee deep, validating the impacts that wind can have on snow depths in the area.
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1/28/2023
Thomas DiPietro-Smugglers Notch
Wind slabs from the top of Cassis. Stable and cohesive snowpack in the chute with 3”wind slab on top. Skier triggered the wind slab prior to me getting there.
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1/28/2023
Heather Furman-Mt. Mansfield
Triggered a small slide (3” crown height) on a steep micro terrain feature (about 10’ tall) on a north easterly aspect of Mt Mansfield today. Rather a tiny and inconsequential slide, but on a larger sized feature it would have a bigger deal.
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1/28/2023
Owen McAndrew-Smugglers Notch 1/28/2023
On the first field day of our level one avalanche course, our group set out with the intent of assessing the snowpack on a variety of aspects and elevations. We hoped that by doing so, we would feel more comfortable planning a larger tour for tomorrow.
What we found was a great deal of spatial variability.
Throughout the day, winds were light and snow fell intermittently at a rate of S-1. This included graupel, which was widespread across the snow surface. As we traveled, we walked across a number of different test slopes off the road. Most were unreactive, however, we observed cracks propagating from our skis in isolated areas of wind-drifted snow.
While ascending an East facing glade above the road, we traveled on a variety of snow surfaces. These included wind-scoured slopes, supportable refrozen surfaces, and pockets of soft snow. Height of snow ranged from about 65cm-80cm.
In an undisturbed area at 2,300' on an ENE aspect, we conducted several instability tests and saw mixed results. Notably, we observed results of ECTP16 and ECTP14. These came from two separate pits and failed above a crust 34cm up from the ground. In our post-tour debrief, we identified this result as a red flag, but we agreed that we had not covered enough ground to truly assess the weak snow's distribution.
We will continue to make conservative decisions while gathering more information on this layer tomorrow.
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1/26/2023
Michael Fritz -Mt. Mansfield Area
On a side/slack country tour, we observed a snowboarder triggered avalanche on a Northeast aspect at ~ 3000 ft. A small slab fractured on a steep slope at the top of a drainage chute. The avalanche ran ~20' and settled into the trees. No riders were hurt, or carried. It looked like the fracture occured on the previous wet storm layer.
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1/26/2023
Anna Grunes-Smuggler's Notch, SE aspect on the Mansfield side
Lots of wind slabs at variable depths in the notch slides. Triggered this shooting crack at the steep convexity at around 2600', heard whumpfing. Triggered from stepping out of skis and post-holing deep into the snow. Propagated across the whole gully (~15 ft) and cracked down deep (~2 ft).
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1/26/2023
Luke Schaefer-Smuggler's Notch, NW Aspect Around 2500' - 1/26 around 3pm
Heavy wet snow from the night of 1/25-26 formed a layer that though cohesive, didn't seem to have much energy from hand-shears and ski cuts on test slopes, but perhaps would be of concern on isolated, exposed terrain. New, lighter snow and high winds had started forming wind slabs 3-5" in depth on many aspects by 3pm 1/26. Our group turned back due to avalanche concerns and worsening wind conditions and enjoyed some less-consequential powder skiing.