Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2019
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Subject: Snodgrass
Aspect: North, East
Elevation: trailhead to 11000′

Avalanches:

From Snodgrass trailhead, observed several large avalanches on White mtn and WSC Peak on SW aspects with crowns just below ridgline. Another much smaller avalanche on same aspect at lower elevation on WSC. Clouds were rolling in as I pulled up to the trailhead, so couldn’t get a clear picture, but they looked to be fresh-ish (sometime since the last storm).

Weather: Partly cloudy, then overcast with light snowfall. Light, swirling winds.

Snowpack: Supportive. Ski pen 4-8 inches. Not supportive to boot. Snow surface was soft powder with some minor wind scouring up top. Dug a pit on shallow angle (maybe 20-25 degree) north facing slope at around 11000′. Snow height 140cm. From top down– 140-120: soft fresh snow, 120-30: 4f to fist with a few distinct layers, below 30 was a mix of large grained sugar with spots of ice up to pencil hardness. Compression test produced failure on crust at 30cm above ground level after second tap from the elbow.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Thick Firm Wind Deposits Or Good Pow
Aspect: North, East, South
Elevation: 10,000-11,500

Avalanches:

1 small looking slab on a west aspect of Mt Axtell at 11,400ft. Long ways away so hard to tell how fresh. Could have been a D2 but looked smaller, and again just to far away to tell.

Weather: Mostly Cloudy. Few snow flurries in the afternoon, but not accumulating. Drifting snow during moderate wind gusts.

Snowpack: Quiet snowpack and no obvious sings to instability. Previous north to northwest winds had clearly blown up northerly slopes and loaded easterly to southerly facing slopes. Managing terrain for the thickest loading was good travel advice. Pushed on a few loaded slopes with no result, but the wind-loaded snow was thick and very dense. A ski cut in that thick snow wan’t something you would want to hang your hat on. South facing slopes also had a thin crust at the surface from yesterday.

HS was in the 155 to 200+ cm range. Dug one hole on a north facing NTL slope with a nice even snowpack. HS 195. Dug into the upper 100cm and of course no layers of concern. Outside of managing wind-loading, the best practice felt like managing the terrain for potential trigger points where the snowpack would thin, or very steep slopes that may hold a shallower and weaker snowpack.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2019
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Irwin Cat Operation Meteogram Jan 1-Jan 23rd
Aspect:
Elevation: 10000-12000

Avalanches:

Weather: Irwin’s meteogram of day of month, sky cover, surface snow form, solar radiation, ridge (green) and valley (blue) temperatures, max wind gust for 24hr period, average wind, direction, 10,000ft snow height, daily snow totals, CBAC avalanche hazard. Internal product, but posted for public reference. This resource has been referenced in the CBAC Fireside Chat series and users have voiced a strong interest in being able to access this resource. Forecasters will periodically post these updated meteograms throughout the winter.

Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/22/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: BTL W and SW in snow favored local
Aspect: South West, West
Elevation: 9,000′ to 10,900′

Avalanches:

Several slides were a bit tough to tell if fresh or not because lots of crowns are still visible across the range. Certainly one fresh slide on south side of Cinnamon, D2.

Weather: Mostly clear skies down valley with clouds forming over Ruby Range and Schofield park from north flow. No snow.

Snowpack: Travelled on W and SW slopes below treeline up to 11,200′ and found HS average between 140-155cm. Stability test produced no significant results – nothing propagating. Found several small terrain features in upper 30 degrees that did not have any apparent traffic and stomped hard without collapsing or cracking. Overall the snowpack was quiet and supportive. Basal weak layers show significant signs of rounding and were generally in the 4f+ range for hardness.

Took a look at the remote triggered avalanche from Sunday on a SW at 10,800 feet. Upon inspection this slide failed on top of 1/15 suncrust, did not collapse it, involved just the drifted snow from 1/16 – 1/18.

Clear signs of drifting on to the south half of the compass near and above treeline from northerly winds.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/22/2019
Name: CBPSP

Subject: Phoenix bowl control routes
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 10,500’

Avalanches:

#1 SS-AE-R2-D2.5-O/G
#2 SS-AEy-R2-D2.5-O
#3 SS-AE-R2-D2.5-O/G
#2 was remotely triggered aprox. 600’ away over an abrupt ridge on a diff. aspect from one 2# charge.

Weather: Clear and cold with light NW winds

Snowpack: Obvious sings of windloading on lee slopes E aspects. 27” of new snow on top of 24” of very weak faceted snow that had seen minimul ski patrol traffic before the storms.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/22/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Great Skiing And Quiet Snowpack
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000-11,300ft

Avalanches:

Few small, loose snow like avalanches out there. No new slabs observed from the last 24hr with a good views of the upper OBJ and Slate basins.

Weather: Partly cloudy, light winds, cold temps. Didn’t observe any blowing snow and had good views of the high peaks. Doesn’t mean snow was not drifting on the peaks and not visible form a distance.

Snowpack: This snowpack is definitely making, or has made the transition out of the classic continental snowpack that exits in other areas around Crested Butte. Did not bother digging down to the middle of the snowpack to observe the old NSF layer of concern. That rounding NSF layer of concern was documented form this same area in this observation on January 12th, and in Washington Gulch on January 15th. The potentially buried SH was not observed and wether or not the SH was there, I definitely didn’t dig down deep enough to answer that question. No sings of instability observed. Skinned and skied on slopes in the upper 30 degrees. Some of which have avalanched a couple times this year and some that haven’t.

Wind-loading from last night or yesterday could not be seen. The snow looked to have fallen as the wind eased overnight and covered up any previous wind-loading evidence at ridgeline. Cornices remain smaller then normal for the time of year at ridgeline and recent wind texture showed that these cornices were being slightly eroded overnight vs loading these NE slopes.

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/22/2019
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Whetstone and Double Top Avalanches
Aspect: North East, East, South East, West, North West
Elevation: 9-12,000ft

Avalanches:

Large to very large avalanches observed on Whetstone (E-SE ATL) fresh overnight (and large sympathetic slide in NE bowl). Also unknown age of the Doubletop avalanches but looked fresh bedsurfaces with binos. W-NW facing NTL terrain. Crown depths look 4-6 feet deep, failing on persistent weak layers and gauging to near ground in places.

Weather: Scattered clouds, light NW winds. 4-8″ new snow overnight and up to 70mph westerly winds overnight.

Snowpack:
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/21/2019
Name: Irwin Guides

Subject: Irwin Cat Ski Obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Above avalanches were both on steep, convexities, with out much skier traffic or previous work. Deepest part of crown in FOS avalanche was 1m+. Neither slide gouged into older snow in the
tracks, debris was 1m deep.
Castle Valley Left SS-AB-R1-D2-O FC-11/22 (40cm x 10m x 200m) Arblast pulled up into steep rocky Convexity,
narrow path not digging in.
Field of Screams SS-AB-R2-D2-O FC-11/22 (40cm x 20m x 130m)

Weather: FEW to OVC by 9:30 and snowing by 11a. Strong winds with period of S3 around noon back to S1/S2 for remainder of the day.

Snowpack: Stiff and smooth in UUWW with no cracking or signs of instabilities other than with
explosives. Minimal ski pen. Small grain surface hoar observed at the study plot this am before latest round of snow.

Photos: