Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/13/2018
Name: Ian Havlick Aspect: North East
Avalanches:
Saw three D2 avalanches in Peeler Basin off the opposite side of Scarps Ridge from the Irwin Cat tenure. Too little visibility for good photos, but all looked to have run on the early season depth hoar.
Date: 02/14/2018
Make sure your loved ones get some powder today. Given this season, it’s about as good a gift as one could offer. And if you miss the powder today, tomorrow’s going to be even better.
The closed low pressure that’s fueled snow showers over the last 48 hours is fading away into Baja leaving us with diminishing moisture this morning. Meanwhile, a more potent trough of low pressure currently over the Pacific Northwest sinks southward over the great basin today. This digging trough will deliver a strong winter storm starting this evening, lasting roughly 24 hours through Thursday evening. Strong southwest winds will kick off the blizzard this evening, then after midnight, the moisture will ramp up the winds will veer to our beloved west flow and we’ll see what happens from there. The models are looking impressive at this point with over a foot of snow expected for the high country.
High Temperature: 30
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30, Southwest
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 1 to 3″
Elkton Snow: 2 to 4″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 1 to 2″
Low Temperature: 20
Winds/Direction: 20 to 30, gusting to 50, Westsouthwest
Sky Cover: Overcast
Irwin Snow: 8 to 10″
Elkton Snow: 6 to 8″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 6 to 8″
High Temperature: 20
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30, West
Sky Cover: Overcast
Irwin Snow: 4 to 6″
Elkton Snow: 3 to 5″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 2 to 4″
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/13/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett
Subject: Elkton Knob look about
Aspect: South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,400-11,300′
Avalanches:
Generally poor visibility, but avalanche problems seemed spot on. Observed at least two D2 Persistent Slab avalanches that ran naturally, and numerous small Wind Slabs. One off Schuykill Ridge, one out of the Banana (patrol will provide more detail today).
Weather: Continuous snow showers all afternoon. Breaks in the clouds warmed the snow surface quickly, but the breaks were rare. HST 16″ w/ 1.7″ SWE. Steady light SW winds, picked up to Moderate around 4pm.
Snowpack: Surprisingly no cracking. Several deep grumbly rumbles in open meadows with the new load sitting on a crust on West aspects above 10,500′. On west and northwest aspects I went looking to see if the character and strength of the crust made an impact on propagation potential. Only ECTX results observed. Still lacking a good stiff slab below 10,500′, then the snowpack becomes more noisy above.
Lots of evidence of wind transport from the night of the 12th.
Photos:
efficient loading on Treasury’s SW face, and that’s the windward side.
Efficient wind transport, Cinnamon Mtn. South Aspect
Efficient wind transport, Cinnamon Mtn. South Aspect
Efficient wind transport, Cinnamon Mtn. South Aspect
Generally poor visibility, but avalanche problems seemed spot on. Observed at least two D2 Persistent Slab avalanches that ran naturally, and numerous small Wind Slabs.
Generally poor visibility, but avalanche problems seemed spot on. Observed at least two D2 Persistent Slab avalanches that ran naturally, and numerous small Wind Slabs.
Generally poor visibility, but avalanche problems seemed spot on. Observed at least two D2 Persistent Slab avalanches that ran naturally, and numerous small Wind Slabs.
Date: 02/13/2018
A closed low parked on the Pacific Coast has been funnelling Baja moisture straight towards Colorado on a southwest flow. The intensity of stream of moisture will diminish today as that low wobbles back to the west, though we can expect a few isolated showers over the high peaks. That closed low looks like it will stay in place for a couple days, before it advances back east to hit us with another potent storm on Thursday.
High Temperature: 25
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30 Southwest
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0 to 2″
Elkton Snow: 0 to 2″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0 to 1″
Low Temperature: 15
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30, Southwest
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0 to 2″
Elkton Snow: 0 to 2″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0 to 1″
High Temperature: 25
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30, Southwest
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0 to 2″
Elkton Snow: 0 to 2″
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0 to 1″
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/12/2018
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Gothic Area
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,600-11,100
Avalanches:
In steep terrain sluffs were running smaller then a week ago and not gauging down into the faceted snowpack as easily.
Weather: Calm wind. Overcast. Mostly light snow showers during the day. Picked up in the afternoon. About 4″ HST at 10,500ft by 3pm.
Snowpack: 3rd day in a row in the same area. Lots of weakness out there but not enough load or slab yet for things to start acting up. No signs to instability, pushed out on a number of more suspect area. HS mostly in the 60cm to 120cm range in the elevation ban traveled. 1/9 interface down about 20cm. Lots of variability in the snowpack. From slopes that have avalanched previously or not, changes in HS, old wind boards or sun crusts, wind stripped areas. ugly. Though the new snow is making the skiing great and the weak snowpack makes it feel extra deep.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Jeff Banks
Subject: Scarps Ridge
Aspect: North, East, South, West
Elevation: 9,400-12,400
Avalanches:
Too numerable to count. Most of Scarps ridge is littered with mid-storm releases where a crown was not usually visible. Most of these appeared to be ~D1.5 to small D2 in very steep, cliffy terrain.
However observed a few notable slabs:
-North side of Barkmarker zone 2 X D2 that slid within the basal facets post storm @ 12K, N aspect.
-Adjacent to these slides another D2 from mid storm
-SE in Elk basin slid D2, possible slab
Weather: Cold -20C clear light winds
Snowpack: Super variable. only a few moderate sized collapses along ridge lines where the snow was shallow ~50cm with a WS above facets.
Date: 02/12/2018
Yesterday’s beautiful weather was short lived as our next winter storm is knocking at the door this morning. Crested Beauticians are eager to open that door and welcome some more snow to the area. A closed low is forming to our west and drawing moisture into the area on southwest flow. Models predict snowfall starting up around 6am, with southwest winds picking up this morning too. In the mountains west and north of Crested Butte, snowfall rates look to be an inch an hour for several hours before noon. Then snowfall rates look to taper in the afternoon and continue through the night. Drier weather will return for Tuesday before the next pulse of moister looks to bring snow back for the midweek.
High Temperature: 27
Winds/Direction: 15 to 25, SSW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Irwin Snow: 6 to 8
Elkton Snow: 6 to 8
Friend’s Hut Snow: 4 to 6
Low Temperature: 18
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, SSW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Irwin Snow: 4 to 6
Elkton Snow: 4 to 6
Friend’s Hut Snow: 2 to 4
High Temperature: 30
Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, SSW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Irwin Snow: 0 to 2
Elkton Snow: 0 to 2
Friend’s Hut Snow: 0 to 2
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Evan Ross Avalanche L1 Class
Subject: Gothic Area
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9,500-10,600
Avalanches:
Looking around the East River Valley there were no notable slab avalanches that I could see. Loose snow avalanches off of Gothic Mountain and a few out near Belview were about it.
Weather: Clear and beautiful out there
Snowpack: Mostly same same as previous days observation. Saturday’s storm snow had lost strength overnight and PS structure continued to be isolated to non existent in the terrain traveled. Avoided the most suspect areas rather then trying to gather direct observation on those terrain features. No obvious signs to instability. The weak layers are there, just not enough load or slab yet of the PS issue.
Photos:
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Bryan Mazaika and Seth Tucker
Subject: Skooks First Bowl
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,200
Avalanches:
Our main goal of the day was to look at the belly of the beast firsthand. We could have chosen more conservative terrain as we normally do and plenty of other options existed for our day. We wanted to get a pit profile a pitch or two down First Bowl. We skied one short pitch and regrouped in the trees. During the second pitch we skier triggered a PS-ASu-R2.5-D2-G. We estimate the crown height to be 100cm and 15 meters wide. The slide ran 275m, a majority of the slope to the next rollover. It was triggered about 11,100, 100 feet or so below the ridgeline. The slide broke about 10m above the skier and skier 2 was located just below the crown, both skiers we able to ski out of the hazard. Given we both wanted to look at this terrain firsthand we got a big result. I want to attribute our safety and getting out without injury due to our communication verbal and radio, skiing short pitches within verbal range and choosing good islands of safety. The new snow from 2/10 was certainly a tipping point for our weak snowpack structure.
Weather: Light breeze, sunny, 25 degrees
Snowpack: Upon hitting the ridgeline with southern exposure we noticed a strong sun crust on the 1/20 interface and the new snow was sliding underfoot
Photos:
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Kristi Murrin
Subject: Avalanche on Anthracites East Bowl
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,500
Avalanches:
Weather: Clear
Snowpack: Variable, we skied from top of east down through trees on skiers left from top notch. Leaped frogged with one other person. Taking turns. Ski triggered a small avalanche that moved one skier about 100 ft. Not deep enough or long enough to bury. There is another big slide just to the right that slid to the bottom. Must have happened only a short time earlier.
