Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/18/2019
Name: CBPSP

Subject: Crested Butte Mountain Resort Obs
Aspect: North
Elevation: 10200′-11400′

Avalanches:

Funnel N-SS-R2-D2-I
Teo 2 N-SS-R3-D3-O
Wolfs Lair AE-SS-R2-D2-I
Disgusting Trees AEy-SS-R3-D2-O/G (small feature that released sympathetic from another slide crown was 5′)

Weather: Temperature’s in the low teens with moderate NW winds all day. 10″ of new last night with .9″ SWE

Snowpack: Ran routes in previously open terrain today most teams reported storm slabs that were reactive to explosives. As the day progressed isolated touchy wind slabs formed throughout the day.
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/18/2019
Name: Greta Starrett

Subject: Avalanche sighting
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Sunlight ridge slid again

Weather:

Snowpack:
Photos:

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/18/2019
Name: Kieth Cooper

Subject: Large Cement Creek Avalanches
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9000k

Avalanches:

Broke all the way up top, crossed the road and went all the way to the creek.  Cement creek road near the north end of Cement Creek Ranch. About 1.5 miles from trailhead, quarter mile from Warm Spgs.

Weather: Flurries after storm

Snowpack: shiitty
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/18/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Slate River Avalanche Obs

Avalanches: Heading out the Slate River. Avalanche activity was widespread on NE aspects to the east of OBJ Creek. Wide propagating crowns in the Happy Chutes and new D2 and D2.5 debris below many of the Climax Chutes. Difficult to See the Climax Chutes with visibility. Passing OBJ the natural avalanche activity became more specific. Didn’t see any activity in the main Schulkyll area. Reaching the great wide open on Schulkyll, there were several D2 to D2.5 avalanches reaching the Slate River. Those avalanches were failing on the lookers right side of the avalanche paths where they get cross-loaded. Then propagating wider in rolls lower down in the terrain.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/18/2019
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Windshield Tour Mid Storm Clearing
Aspect: North, East, South East, West
Elevation: 9,000-11,500

Avalanches:

Numerous large to vary large avalanches on nearly all aspect and elevations looking to failing primarily on persistent weak layers deeper int he snowpack. Most impressive avalanches were observed on Whetstone, Cement, and near Crested Butte. Avalanches propagated through fairly forested steep terrain and slopes steeper than about 30º.

Weather: Heavy snow and strong NW winds early tapered to showery orographic snow showers into the afternoon. Temperatures remained mild throughout storm.

Snowpack: 10-12″ snow across area traveled overnight. Noticable wind transport from north-northwesterly direction throughout valley.
Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2019
Name: Zach Kinler

Subject: Washington Gulch
Aspect: North East, East, West
Elevation: 9,000-10,400

Avalanches:

Observed several D1-D2+ avalanches on West aspects Above, Near and Below Tree line from recent storm.

Weather: Sunny and warm early transitioned into clouds, wind and light snow. High ~ -3.0C. Strong winds with loading snow observed on peaks and ridge lines.

Snowpack: HS @ 10,400: 148 cm. 30 cm recent storm snow.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2019
Name: ADB

Subject: Anthracite Mesa-Coneys Day after storm
Aspect: East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches:

May have observed a couple R1-D1 slides on Schuykill but hard to tell from afar. These occurred mid slope.

Weather: Obstructed skies gave way to broken skies. light to calm winds in valley bottom and in the trees. Moderate winds on the ridgeline with surface snow transport into first bowl.
Paradise Divide area: Moderate to strong winds at ATL. Consistent blowing snow on summits of Baldy and other peaks. Winds direction was from the west (see picture).

Snowpack: Since yesterday’s observations: 2 to 6 inches of wind deposited snow.
no cracking or collapsing. snow was more supportive than yesterday morning.
appears that graupel (<1cm) may have fallen at the end of the snowfall period. graupel on surface formed a scattered layer and doesn’t appear to be widespread.
couldn’t see the remotely triggered avalanche in first bowl from 1/16 observations as recent snow covered any trace.

Photos:

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2019

Subject: Cement Creek Tour
Aspect: North, North West
Elevation: 9800-10200 feet

Avalanches:

None observed.

Weather: Clear in the morning becoming slightly over cast as the day went on. Wind was calm, picking up to a slight breeze around mid afternoon, coming out of the NW. Cold in the valley bottoms and warming with elevation gain, though the shaded northern aspects stayed pretty chilly all day.

Snowpack: By and large the snowpack was not supportive to Rando skis until just below 10000 feet, and then it was supportive only intermittently. Experienced one large collapse at just over 10000′. Could not see any shooting cracks but collapse was large and loud enough to startle me. Only other collapses of the day were at lower elevations. These were much smaller feeling and did not seem to propagate more than a few inches past my ski tips. Dug a pit at 10200′ on NNW aspect BTL. Snow depth 100cm. Upper 20cm was new storm snow. Below that was soft “slab” 4-finger to fist hardness, softening with depth. At ~40cm above ground level it became coarse grained sugar from there on down. Compression test produced failure @ 20 cm below snow surface after 8 taps from the wrist. Failed again at about 50 cm below snow surface after 5 taps from the elbow, though second failure did not really sheer on any kind of bed surface. It was more like the “slab” just sort of crumbled.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2019
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Windshield Tour of Avalanches in Upper East River Basin
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9-12500

Avalanches:

Several D3 avalanches observed deeper in the northern and eastern zones where 1-1.5″ snow water equivalent fell yesterday and strong winds at ridge top continued transporting snow. Surprised to see as many slides fail midstorm on southwest and west facing terrain. Aspects up to this point have lacked much avalanche activity. We are phasing out of those aspects offering safer passage in the backcountry I fear… especially with this next big wave of moisture tonight and tomorrow.

Weather: Increasing Clouds, partly cloudy, light breeze in valley, strong winds at ridgetop. Temps were milds.

Snowpack:

Photos: