Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Name: Tom Schaefer (CBPSP)
Subject: Fresh Baldy and WSC Avalanches
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: ATL/NTL
Avalanches:
Fresh avalanches this afternoon observed from ski area.
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Name: ADB
Subject: Snodgrass-Freshened up
Aspect: East
Elevation: BTL
Weather: Clear skies, cold temperatures, and moderate winds with no snow transport. Observed sustained NW winds blowing snow from top of Whetstone on drive to the trailhead and back.
Snowpack: Most tracks filled in between first bowl and third bowl. Snow was very supportive with a fresh coat of wind deposited snow, forming a 2 to 4 inch layer of soft wind slab.
Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Name: ADB
Subject: Cement Creek-Recon
Aspect: West
Elevation: BTL-Valley Bottom
Weather: Clear skies and light winds.
Snowpack: Poking around with ski pole and digging with hands:
HS is less than 27 inches.
snow is variable between supportive and unsupportive with a few complete collapses on a buried bedrock shelf.
very qualitative and subjective:
22 inches to surface-Fist hardness
12-21 inches: 4F hardness
10-12 1F hardness
0-10 inches F hardness and full of faceted grains.
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Subject: Irwin AIARE 1 Group 2
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 10,200
Weather: clear
10mph winds
Snowpack: 18 degrees
CT26 and CT27
ECTX
(HS on the gothic road pit I just submitted was 126cm)
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Subject: Irwin AIARE 1 Group 3
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,200
Weather: Few Clouds
10mph at pit
15mph at cars
Snowpack: Red Lady Glades
E
CTX
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2019
Subject: Irwin AIARE 1
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,600
Weather: Gothic Road
Sky cover- Few
10 mph winds (picking up around 2 pm)
Snowpack: CT 19 20cm
ECTX X2
Poor Man’s Rouchblock https://youtu.be/vXbxlWDmVE8
Ski Pen 15 cm
Boot Pen 45cm
Both images uploaded are facets at 20 cm 1-2mm rounding facets
Photos:
Date: 01/26/2019
Compared to the last week or so, today’s weather and beyond is a bit of a yawner. Not going to belabor the bottom line. Last nights very weak wave of embedded moisture than dropped a skiff on the northern Elks dries up. High and dry ridge of high-pressure slides overhead, as it does, we could get one more shot of light snow tomorrow. Bit of a breather for the weak ahead, model agreement diverges for the end of this week, 6 days out. Potential moisture, but lots of time to let some snow do some settling in the meantime. Expect valley inversions to strengthen.
High Temperature: 10-15
Winds/Direction: 15-25/NNW G40
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0-1″
Elkton Snow: 0-1″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0-1″
Low Temperature: 8-12
Winds/Direction: 5-15/NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0
Elkton Snow: 0
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0
High Temperature: 20-25
Winds/Direction: 10-20/NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0-1″
Elkton Snow: 0-1″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0-1″
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/25/2019
Name: Steve Banks
Subject: CB Zone
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9-11,000
Avalanches:
Small windlslab in Red Lady Bowl fresh on 1/24 night? Evidence of several small dribblers, sluffs and cornice falls in the bowl over the past few days.
Weather: Mostly sunny and felt warm, but cold if not in the sun. Moderate winds in the AM becoming light in the PM. Lots of blowing snow up high. No precip
Snowpack: 4-6″ of new snow from yesterday/last night was becoming moist in the sun. Below was a soft crust from prior sunny days and another just below that. Without digging a pit, the snowpack felt supportive but variable. Ski pen never more than 8″ but ski pole could be pushed over 130cms into the snow in some places, but resisted in others. Lots of snow moving onto NE/E slopes NTL and ATL.
Photos:
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/27/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Washington Gulch Avalanche Obs
Aspect:Â S-SW-ENE
Elevation: 9-12500
Avalanches:
Purple Palace ENE. The Baldy wind slab is south. The wide propagating slab looks a few days old and is out Rustlers Gulch SE. Good view out there and didn’t see any other slabs.
Morning trip up Washington with no signs of instability. Plenty of previous wind transported snow and still transporting this morning.
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/25/2019
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Fresh Whetstone Avalanches
Aspect: East
Elevation: 8700 BTL
Avalanches:
New pockets failing overnight (red), adjacent to other pockets observed fresh yesterday (yellow). failing 2ft deep on old November and December facets
Weather: 2″ new snow overnight. light north winds at this elevation, moderate NW winds at ridgetop
Snowpack:
Photos:
