Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/23/2018
Name: Jeff Banks
Subject: Skier Triggered Avalanche, Snodgrass
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: BTL-NTL
Avalanches:
possibly a skier triggered D2 just above the road on snodgrass. Too far across the valley to discern.
red line is just above possible crown. blue line looked like a skier track. will try to get eyes on tomorrow.
Weather: super variable winds from multiple directions & intensity. from SW to N & calm to strong. Skies varied quickly from Obscured to OVC to brief clearing spells
HN 1-2″ depending on elevation. Often use the analogy of animal types to describe the avalanche problem for the day…”today we have a PWL that’s like a mountain lion -don’t f_ck with it, just avoid it”. yeah…well that’s great and all til you actually ski into a real mountain lion. ~2mi North of Gothic on the East side there’s a big meow-meow.
Snowpack: 3 medium collapses in the flats, HS ~40-50cm of facets covered by wind slab & crusts. 1 medium collapse on SW @ 10500 ~15* HS ~60cm. tracks partial to totally drifted in open slopes 9400-10900 Flat valley bottoms to S-SW-W
Photos:
