Anthracite Mesa

Date of Observation: 12/24/2020
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Anthracite Mesa – terrain features just up valley of Coney’s proper
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,500′ – 10,800′

Avalanches: some evidence of moving snow in Rock Creek bowl on Baldy (southeasterly above treeline), but too far away to see any reportable details.
Weather: Cold morning at valley bottom, but temps warmed to a comfortable level by midday. Winds were light below treeline and at 10,800′ ridgeline. Blowing snow was visible on several high peaks but hard to say how much loading actually occured. Winds looked to be from N/NW loading terrain that faced south and east.

Snowpack: Traveled on heavily trafficked uptrack, but traveled out of this area for the descent and obs. Received two large collapses the ran 100+ feet on low-angled northeast aspects around 10,800′. Descended slopes in the 28 to 32-degree range with small steeper features immediately adjacent, but no collapsing or cracking while skiing down. Collapsing felt like it was less frequent but larger in size. Stomped above steeper features looking for a result from a safe location, but nada. Test profile continues to show up to 4-finger hard slab resting on fist hard 2mm facets with even larger grained snow at the ground (see photo). Snowpack still looks and talks like trouble in areas with median level snow depths, not the deepest snowpack around Crested Butte but more than the shallowest areas.