Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/15/2019
Name: Zach Kinler

Subject: Gothic West Side Slide
Aspect: West
Elevation: 10,200′-12,200

Avalanches:

Gothic West Side. HS-N-R3.5-D3.5-O. Ran ~ midday 3/14. Broke at the ground in a large portion of the path and ran to the bench just above the road covering recent snow-mo tracks. 

Weather: Amazingly sunny. Warm with highs around freezing but intense solar. Calm-Light westerly winds.

Snowpack: At Elkton Plot site @ 10,400:
HS: 285 cm (9.3 feet), 135 cm (4.5 feet) of settled snow since 2/28.
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/15/2019
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Kebler Pass Area
Aspect: North, North East, South East, South
Elevation: 10,200-12,000

Avalanches:

Some new, small loose avalanches noted from steep, sunny rocky terrain. Lots of older, mostly filled in crowns noted in the Ruby Range, Anthracites area, Scarp Ridge and Gothic Peaks. These looked in the D3 range with wide propagation and failing mid slope, below corniced ridges and in odd places.

Weather: Sunny! Cold morning temps were off set by strong solar radiation. Clam winds all day even on top of Scarp Ridge

Snowpack: Soft snow over a very supportive pack. Solar aspects becoming moist by midday. Probing showed consistently more than 280 cms of snow on the ground with a homogenous feeling pack down to 180/190 cms. Below this level the snow felt a bit weaker. A quick test profile down 130 cms showed Fist hardness in the top 10 cms, progressing quickly to 1Finger and Pencil to Pencil Plus harness down in the 130-140 cms below the surface. No notable layers were found in the upper snowpack.
Ski penetration was about 10 cms and boot penetration 40 cms. The skiing was very supportive and fun. New crusts will be found on sunny aspects tomorrow.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/15/2019
Name: Briant Wiles

Subject: Carbon Peak
Aspect: South, South West

Large slides on a SW aspect on Carbon. Saw long crowns in the Spoon but shadows obscured the full extent.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/15/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Slate River/P-Divide Carnage
Elevation: 9,000-12,000

Avalanches:

Oooo man, destruction out there from the last several weeks. Some more recent storm slabs to D2, otherwise a whole bunch of deep slabs that would be deadly to tango with. Some of these failed within the last week, and some within the last couple weeks. To summaries, the majority of these avalanches were very large, destructive, and unsurvivable. The D3 to D4 avalanches often finished with wet flowing motion after the initial powder cloud.

Of particular note. The D4 in poverty gulch is difficult to describe in words or pictures. This avalanche was previously reported for taking out a new structure. The crown must have been near or over a mile wide from SW to W facing terrain. Mature pine trees where bent over by the powder cloud and initial flow, with wet flowing debris pushing down the upper Daisy Creek. I coudn’t imagin how deep the debris are out there.

Weather: Clear and beautifully weather. Calm to light winds at 12,000ft. Strong March solar

Snowpack: Quiet and supportive would be the best way to quickly describe the snowpack. NE was staying dry, but round the corner to SE or S and the upper 10cm’s of the snowpack was moist in the early afternoon. Looked at a bunch of westerly terrain that was dry at 1pm, guessing the sun got to it in the afternoon. Low angle northerly slopes were also warming from the sun. A few more specific data points below.

ESE, 11,600ft, 32 degree slope, in the upper Daisy Creek. HS 5m+. Dug down 160cm. No layers of concern in this pit. CT and DT tests where ineffective in layer identification. Burping the baby helped, but….

SSW, 9,400ft, Low 30 degree slope, in the Slate River Drainage. Attempted to target a snowpack structure that would be similar the the very large natural avalanches that crossed the Slate River Rd on southerly facing terrain. HS 212. Again, a CT test in the upper 130cm’s of the snowpack was ineffective for layer identification. The layer of concern looked to be a soft and faceted crust about 45cms off the ground. Otherwise below that got into larger grained and moist facets.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/14/2019
Name: Irwin Cat Operation

Subject: Very Large Natural Avalanches in Robinson Basin

Avalanches:

Lot’s of SS-R1-D1’s from shots in EBM and Flamming/Whiskey. Two R2-D1.5 in Sunny Right and LOL and one R2-D2 in Sunny Left. See blast report for more diets. Large Natural out of New World: Eyes of the World and Seamstress Alley likely ran yesterday? D3 with trees in the debris well into the bottom of Robinson.

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/14/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Farris Creek Area
Aspect: North, East, South, West
Elevation: 9,000-11,000

Weather: Mostly cloudy, with minimal solar. Calm wind traveling at lower elevations.

Snowpack: This observation was shooting for some random places that may be a shallower snowpack would speak up. Not too much ligament avalanche terrain traveled, with slope angles reaching up to 35 degrees. HS varying between 150 to 280 on the aspects and elevations traveled. No obvious sings to instability.

North facing, 30-degree slope at 9,400ft. HS ~170cm. Dug into the upper 100cm’s of the snowpack. Down about 50cm the snow became P hard. A layer of small SH was down ~65cm and ~100cm. A thin, weak faceted crust was down 10cm’s. No results on CT tests.

NNW Crown Profile at 9,300ft. This was a steep 38-40 degree, wind-loaded slope. Appeared to have too much snow on the bed surface to have failed in the last couple days, so likely failed during the storm previous to 3/11. Crown was about 110cm and failed in small 1mm faceted grains that were 1F hard, about 30cm off the ground. Traveled on a similarly loaded slope with no obvious signs to instability. Maybe just needed to find a trigger point?

Crown Profile on SW aspect at 10,900ft. A very large avalanche had run off the southwest to west side of Double Top South. This avalanche had gouged out additional crowns on the flank of its avalanche path. This crown profile was mid-track on a southwesterly aspect. In this area the avalanche appeared to fail about 25cm’s off the ground in small faceted grains, just above the large 1F depth hoar. CT and informal tests produced no results. The bed surface of the avalanche had about 35 to 45cm’s of new snow on it. I couldn’t identify the crowns in the upper start zone, partly due to visibility and partly because they have filled back in.

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/13/2019
Name: Will Nunez

Subject: Gunni Cruising
Aspect: East
Elevation: 8,500

Avalanches:

One R1 D1.5 on steep road cut one convex roll 1 meter crown to ground.

Weather: Overcast, 32 degrees, blowing snow on the road SW

Snowpack: Shallow snow pack just 7miles south of Crested Butte
Photos: