Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/31/2019
Name: ADB

Subject: snow surveys and obs
Aspect:
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches:

See pic of old slab near the yurt on CB Nordic. This slide occurred during the natural storm cycle we experienced in the last 10 days? I have never seen this small 40 foot convex slope slide while doing surveys between January and May. SS-U-R1-D1. Maybe this was remotely triggered from grooming operations 50 feet away? Aspect is E/SE. It’s away from the groomed track but we think we used to ski down that to get to the snow course 4 years ago.

Weather: Clear and calm. cold temperatures in the morning with near freezing in the sun in early afternoon.

Snowpack: Crested Butte Snow Course-Town elevation: depth of snow ranged between 33 and 41 inches; snow water equivalent is about 6. 2 inches. ground is moist.
Keystone Snow Course (bottom of Red Lady Glades): snow depth ranged between 33 and 43 inches; snow water equivalent is about 10 inches. Snow is more consolidated and dense than town.
Sidenote: Please don’t hike up the mine road to access Red Lady Bowl or the Glades. There’s heavy equipment moving snow. Thanks!!! ADB
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/30/2019
Name: IG

Subject: Irwin Cat Ski Obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Avalanche observations: Larger Anfo shots were able to pull out shallow windslabs, running Â3⁄4 of the way down track. Only significant slide was out of Spool below Left Eye. Anfo AB pulled refrigerator hs chunk and it gouged into deeper layers mid track. HS-AE-R2-D1.5 Also, no significant propagation outside of effective range of explosive. Hand shots had cratered with no results.
Lone Wolf HS-AE-R1-D1- U (cm x m x m)

Weather: Relentless strong guests out of the WSW, nearing extreme at 1600. Sunny and chilly, minimal solar impact.

Snowpack: Minimal snow transport, more stiffening then loading. Windward surfaces were smooth and grabby, but still able to find adjacent quality textured snow. Protected terrain was skiing well.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/30/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Skier triggered slide- Baldy
Aspect: South
Elevation: 11,000′ – 12,500′

Avalanches:

Skier triggered avalanche on Mount Baldy south bowl. It was triggered midslope; skier caught and carried into the basin. Skier deployed airbag and was not fully buried and was not injured. Crown estimated to be 1 to 2 feet thick.

Weather: Bluebird, light winds

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/29/2019
Name: Eric Murrow & Zack Kinler

Subject: Westerly terrain on the east side
Aspect: South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,000′ – 11,800′

Avalanches:

Nothing fresh observed.

Weather: Day started out with lots of high clouds and ugly flat light for snowmo trail breaking through weak, garbage snowpack, but as the day progressed clear skies prevailed with partly cloudy conditions. Winds were generally light, no transport observed. Temps were cold in the morning at valley bottom, but quite comfortable near treeline in the afternoon.

Snowpack: We moved through BTL and NTL on mostly S – W facing slopes. HS below treeline was around 60 to 90cm. As we climbed higher to treeline HS ran from about 100 to 130cm. Our objective was to target NTL SW and W slopes looking for Persistent Slab structure.
The first site was a SW facing slope at 11,400′. Here snowpack across a large area ranged from 100 – 120cm. We poked a hole and found that the 1/16 & 1/18 storm left a cohesive slab resting on a poor looking SH/crust/facet/crust sandwich. Test results produced ECTP 27 result above the 1/15 suncrust on SH. This is not the first place near treeline on a sunny aspect we have found buried SH. The PWL crap stack was down 45cm. Take a look at the photo below to see the test profile.
We also targeted a W facing slope just a bit higher at 11,600′. HS ran from 120 to 140cm across this terrain. Here we found snowpack that harboured the persistent weak layers from mid-January. Two layers of SH with a thin layer of facets between, 45cm down-again this structure is widespread across the CBAC forecast area on W-N-E facing slopes near and below treeline. The mid-December weak layer was obvious and still weak. ECTP 21 at the 12/19 interface. See photo below
Looking into the shady side of the ridge towards Teo and West Brush Creek, the couple of avalanche paths we peered into had run sometime early during the 1/16 & 1/18 storm events. Crowns were refilled but just barely visible, debris piles were visible on the valley floor below.
West facing above and near treeline terrain in upper Brush Creek and Upper Cement Creek looked shallow and blown out. See photos below.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/28/2019
Name: Eric

Subject: Ski Patrol Avalanche Mitigation- Fredo’s
Aspect: North West
Elevation: 11,360′

Avalanches:

We have had numerous passes over the last several weeks in this piece of terrain with explosives work and ski cuts and had success affecting weak layers in the snowpack with these methods. We placed a 4# Air Blast on the far skiers right apron of Fredo’s and was able to affect the stubborn wind slab. The avalanche would be classified as HS-AE-D1-I.

Weather: Clear skies with strong winds from the NW and intense snow transport.

Snowpack: Witnessed evidence of wind affected slopes and stubborn wind slab. Any snow that had deposited in this piece of terrain from our previous storm seemed to have stiffened with the change in wind direction from the W-SW to the NW. The surface of the snow showed severe ripple marks and was extremely firm traveling across it on skis. It was fairly evident that the wind slab we were focusing on was stubborn and the likelihood of triggering would be low unless we used explosives.
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/28/2019
Name: IG

Subject: Irwin Cat Ski Obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Double on a stick popped windslab in Mikes pocket. 2 layers in the slab which formed Saturday and maybe late yesterday(?). OL Glade SS-AB-R2-D1-I U-01/26 (30cm x 20m x 80m) 2 windslabs pasted lee of tree fence

Weather: S1 with periods of S2 till 13:00. Then clearing SCT to FEW

Snowpack: Windslabs throughout our tenure. Some cracking with skis but no movement. Solid windboard up high in the UWW. Entrance to Sunset Left OL glade very stiff but supportable. Hollow feeling on
the actual windslabs which are obvious.
Photos: