The most recent forecast states "It's been 3 weeks since the last natural avalanche failing on a buried sugary persistent weak layer occurred in the Logan Zone". Perhaps they weren’t initially observed and reported (for good reason), but I believe there were actually a number of sizeable avalanches that took place early in the Jan. 5-7 storm cycle (8+” of SWE), failing on this buried PWL. The evidence was then largely erased by subsequent heavy snowfall and wind. It also appears these avalanches were confined to serious terrain that receives very little traffic.

On ski tours through the Naomi Wilderness this weekend, we observed crowns in several canyons that were filled in to some degree, on steep upper elevation bowls and faces with aspects ranging from SE to NW. Most of these were observed from a distance and don’t show up well in photos, but I included one here that clearly shows a crown. The second photo shows part of the large debris field about 1100 vertical feet below this crown. My guess is this particular slope avalanched later in the storm cycle than others, as neighboring bowls had barely-visible crowns and less obvious debris fields.