Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Sluffy
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,000-12,000

Avalanches:

Long running loose snow avalanches accumulated mass as the gouged into the weak snowpack.

1 sluff/slab thing that propagated a little wider, D1.5. 10,100ft NE.

Weather: Clear and mostly calm. Some light winds just able to move snow from the north side of the ride to the south side at times, above treeling.
Snowpack: Kicked it off on E ATL. Snow on the exposed ridge was fluffy, how often does that happen? Some sluffing in the new snow otherwise nothing notable. Same slope as in this picture from 12/29. Weak layers are present, but all the ingredients where not there for a slab release on this specific part of the slope. This slope had seen a shallow but fairly wide natural windslab on 12/30 likely failing on the upper most weak layer.

Moved to more SE NTL by 1pm and those slopes had become moist at the surface. The structure on these slopes was fairly simple, with generally soft and faceting snow over a crust over more weak faceted snow. Other then the curst there wasn’t really anything to propagate . Steeper slopes the crusts was stronger of course and lower angled slopes is where the crusts where more brittle and collapsible. Somewhere with more of a slab, like wind-loading on this structure, would have been more concerning.

NE 11,300-9,000ft. Steep, aggressive, mostly open BTL type terrain. Sluffing was the primary issue. Small sluffs where running long distances and accumulated mass as the gouged into the weak snowpack. Skiing a steep ridge feature, the lee side of the feature produced shooting cracks in a couple places that didn’t propagate much. Was able to get a larger D1.5 slab/sluff or slub thing to release at about 10,100ft.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2019
Name: Will Nunez

Subject: Red Coon Basin Remote Trigger D1R1
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 11,000

Avalanches:

Shooting cracks off the ski tip resulted in a remote triggered D1R1 200 ft away. The crown was 10-30cm, running on the preserved SH Year Years storm interface planer and F 4F. (CBAC Note: Slope estimated at 110 degrees ESE)

Weather: Clear Cold and light to mod wind NW
Snowpack: HS ranged from 60-150cm, 1-3mm SH was present and preserved on all S-SE aspects and elevations.
PS structure was still presented but resistance to hand shears.
Unreactive shallow wind slabs on S-SE Above Tree line 4-10cm.

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Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2019
Name: Chris MArtin

Subject: Coon Lady
Aspect: South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,000-12,395′

Avalanches:

N/O

Weather: Sunny, Warm
Snowpack: Today we observed excellent ski conditions. Throughout ascent, we observed new years snow softly laid over the terrain. As we traveled up in elevations near the Coon Summit and Red lady summit, isolated pockets of wind slab were observed. Slabs ranging from 2-6″ thick and reactive under foot and hand shear tests. One small shooting crack observed within new wind transported snow at the top of coon summit. Red lady bowl entrance showed signs of wind slab in the upper upper start zone near the small cornices. Careful Route finding was pertinent today. Persistent Slab Structure Present on these SE-SW aspects in upper elevations.
Also, Surface Hoar formation on the surface from 9,000′ to about 10,000′ , observed while ascending coon glade.

Photos:

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

Subject: Cold and Calm
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,700-11,700

Avalanches:

Small loose snow avalanches. Nothing significant.

Weather: Overcast sky, decreasing in the afternoon. Calm winds.
Snowpack: Storm totals where about 6″. The sun started poking out around 1pm and was settling that snow on sunny slopes. Otherwise that new snow was fist hard, but had that colder slightly stiffer feel. Other then some small loose snow avalanches, we didn’t find any increased avalanche threats from this new snow. No real new sings of recently drifted snow during this recent storm. Other then maybe 2″ here or there. Still was on the lookout for drifted features and using the WSa travel advice.

The alpine sure got raked over a bit by last weekends winds. Lots of wind wales and other wind effect could still be seen with the recent snow on top. While there is some wind effect, the coverage is still looking good on those windward aspects.

Spent some time on similar terrain features near this small human triggered avalanche from 12/29. Those old windslabs where pencil hard and appeared very difficult to trigger. Digging on an ESE aspect at about 10,600ft, the 12/19’ish NSF was still the layer of concern. ECTP Hard, with slab fractures or (N results) on the upper weak layers.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2019
Name: Irwin Cat Obs

Subject: Irwin Cat Obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

No cracking or collapsing observed today. One D1.5 soft slab in field of screams. Small point releases in the UUWW entraining a decent about of snow.

Weather: Few clouds to overcast back to scattered clouds. Swirling winds gusting to 15 today. Moderate green housing throughout the morning clearing in the afternoon to produce a thin zipper noticed in R&R. It will breakdown easily tomorrow.
Snowpack: New storm snow thickening throughout this mornings brief green housing period.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2019
Name: Chris Martin

Subject: Scarp Ridge tour
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 11000-12400

Avalanches:

N/O

Weather: BKN Sky. Calm winds. Beaut of a day!!!
Snowpack: Persistent Slab structure present with incremental loading on top from previous storm. 20-40 cm new/wind transported snow observed. Some places this snow stiffened into hard wind slab on scarps ridge but mostly sat soft. No shooting cracks observed.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/31/2018
Name: Eleven Guides (Irwin Cat skiing)

Subject: Irwin Cat Obs
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 10-12,000ft

Avalanches:

New storm snow running loose dry less than D1 in size. Minimal cracking out in front
of skis in thread, less than a meter. No collapsing observed today.

Weather: Snowing lightly All day with a couple periods of S1 but not accumulating too fast. Calm
Winds gusting to 19 out of the southwest. Cold temps with highs in the single digits at 12,000′
Snowpack: Today we dug a pit in upper 2 chutes right. HS: 175 W-NW 38*. 12/19, 12/21 & 11/22 PS
structure present. SH noted down 35cm. The 12/19 interface is breaking down and barely a crust anymore. CTN,
ECTX, DTN. PST End 50/100 failing on 2mm Facets between the 12/19 & 12/21 Interface down 50cm. 11/22
interface: DTH SC. PST End 50/100 failing on 3mm facets down 95cm. Both persistent slab problems seem to be
unreactive at this point from widespread explosives testing with both hand shots and large targeted
airblasts. Snow profiles also confirm the unreactive sensitivity.

Photos: