Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/15/2017

The bottom dropped out across our forecast area with temperatures hovering in the single digits, and below zero readings over in Taylor Park. We will have yet another quiet day on our hands with drifting cirrus ahead of our next hiccup of a weather system weakening across the Great Basin today, on deck to give us another skiff of snow this weekend. We will have a major change in the weather next week, but just a little too early for solid details. Colder and stormier look like good bets for the rest of the December though.

  • Today

    High Temperature: 30
    Winds/Direction: 5-15/NW
    Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tonight

    Low Temperature: 15
    Winds/Direction: 5-15/WSW
    Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tomorrow

    High Temperature: 35
    Winds/Direction: 5-15/SW
    Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

Coney’s

CB Avalanche Center2017-18 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/12/2017
Name: Cam Smith

Subject: Coney’s
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,700

Avalanches:

None observed



Weather: Warm and sunny. Above freezing in the afternoon. Calm winds.

Snowpack: 15-35cm HS. Generally deeper as you got higher and in loading prone areas. Thin, fragile sun crust on the surface. 1-2mm facets to the ground, everywhere. No signs of instability.

Photos:

Poverty Gulch to Richmond Mountain

CB Avalanche Center2017-18 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/13/2017
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Poverty Gulch to Richmond Mountain
Aspect: North, North East, East, West, North West
Elevation: 9,250 – 12,500

Avalanches:

Weather: Morning started with few clouds/nearly clear and at 10am clouds rolled in and was overcast the rest of the day. Winds were well behaved with speeds of only about 5mph, infrequent questing up to about 10mph. At summit of Richmond winds were still very light out of the west. Overall pleasant day for a walk.

Snowpack: Most surfaces were either facets, faceting windboard, or a few crusts. Travel was generally quite supportive, making travel easy.

On the way up, we crossed many wind loaded pockets (still only around 70cm deep, N -E aspects) near and above treeline and had no collapsing or shooting cracks. Dug numerous quick hand pits in these deeper pockets; rarely found slab/weaklayer structure. Many of these deeper wind deposits were just supportive windboard over very weak F hardness facets. Had a hard time finding hazardous structure. Slab structure was very small in surface area and was discontinuous from rest of slope, even in areas with same surface conditions.

Ski conditions were mostly crap, but at least supportive. Here are a few photos showing snowcover over some of this terrain.

Photos:

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/14/2017

Though this fast moving, and unsettled wave of moisture has only dropped an inch or two across our forecast area, it is a welcomed sign the sustained ridge of high pressure is weakening. The residual moisture from this wave will clear out throughout the morning, leaving cold, dry air in its wake. High pressure will try to re-build, with another similar blip on the radar Saturday night. Looking into next week, models suggest the relentless high pressure has been wounded and will struggle to rebuild, before yet another digging trough across the California coastline opens the interior up for desperate moisture. Future models are even hinting that Santa and Rudolph have bigger, better presents on track for next week.

  • Today

    High Temperature: 25
    Winds/Direction: 10-20/NNW
    Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
    Irwin Snow: 0-1″
    Elkton Snow: 0-1″
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tonight

    Low Temperature: 8
    Winds/Direction: 5-15/NW
    Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tomorrow

    High Temperature: 32
    Winds/Direction: 5-15/WNW
    Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

Mountain Weather 12/13/2017

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/13/2017

Look up today and you’ll see increasing cloud cover in advance of a small storm bringing snow to the mountains tonight. This system is sliding over the top of the ridiculously resilient ridge on the west coast, so it will hit us from the North. Snowflakes will begin to fall well after dark. By Thursday morning, we can expect a couple inches of fresh snow scattered around the southern side of the Elk Mountains. Tomorrow as the storm clears out, the North winds will blow and temps will drop a good 10 degrees over today. Looking deeper into the crystal ball, it looks like we’ve got another chance for snow coming late this weekend.

  • Today

    High Temperature: 30
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15, Northwest
    Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tonight

    Low Temperature: 10
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15, Northwest
    Sky Cover: Overcast
    Irwin Snow: 1 to 3
    Elkton Snow: 1 to 3
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 1 to 2

  • Tomorrow

    High Temperature: 20
    Winds/Direction: 10 to 20, gusting to 30, North
    Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
    Irwin Snow: 0 to 1
    Elkton Snow: 0 to 1
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0 to 1

Paradise divide tour

CB Avalanche Center2017-18 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/11/2017
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Paradise divide tour
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,600 – 11,750 Weather: Bluebird all day. Winds were blowing steady but light around 5 – 15, gusting to 20mph. Winds were out of the north. Air temps were pleasant with reading of 34f @ 11,100, 11:30am.
Snowpack: On the first part of our ascent went up westerly facing slopes 9,600 – 11,000. Snow surfaces were facets, and faceting crusts. Snow was shallow generally less than 35cm. Skiing was supportive.

Easterly slopes off of Cinnamon 11,000 – 11,750, were a again a mix of facets and crusts. Wind erosion has stripped much of this terrain, leaving many sculpted eroded features. Snow was supportive. Terrain features facing SE, out of the wind, softened just a cm or two which made for a few nice supportive, smeary turns around 1:30pm. Similar SE aspects the had more wind stayed cool and didn’t soften.

Dug one quick profile on an due North slope at 11,250 which had seen previous loading(HS 78cm), and found a cohesive slab resting over the Oct/early Nov snow. This site produced a hard propagating test result in an ECT (ECTP 21). This site had deeper snowpack than the immediate adjacent terrain, but shows the potential for isolated areas with deeper accumulations from loading to have a slab/weak layer present. See photo.

Photos:

Mountain Weather 12/12/2017

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/12/2017

First the same news, then the good news.
The PDS (or Pacific Deflector Shield) remains operational through at least this weekend when we expect the Resistance fighters to arrive in theaters near you. Today, clear skies, high temperatures in the mid 30’s and light northwest winds. Tonight the inversion sets back in under clear skies dropping valley temperatures back into the single digits. Then tomorrow, more of the same, though we’ll add a few high thin clouds.
So the good news – the long-range weather models hint at a pattern shift about a week away. We’ll leave it at that for now.

  • Today

    High Temperature: 35
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15, Northwest
    Sky Cover: Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tonight

    High Temperature: 25 at 11,000′; 5 in the valley bottom
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15, Northwest
    Sky Cover: Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tomorrow

    High Temperature: 32
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15, Northwest
    Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

Washington Gulch and Paradise Divide

CB Avalanche Center2017-18 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/11/2017
Name: Ben Pritchett

Subject: Washington Gulch and Paradise Divide
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West

Weather: Bluebird day with mild temperatures and light northwest winds.
Snowpack: Went in search of the elusive near treeline persistent slab structure. Evidence was very difficult to find. Only in Paradise Divide proper (behind Baldy) was there enough snow for any slab structure, and there it was extremely discontinuous and isolated to small pockets. Bumped into our CBAC intern, digging a profile near a profile we dug prior to the November 17th storm. Interestingly, the HS was nearly identical. The slab was less stiff today than a month ago. Elsewhere in the zone, away from the micro-snowclimate at Paradise Divide, the near treeline snowpack is simply too thin.

Photos:

Treasury Ridge

CB Avalanche Center2017-18 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/10/2017
Name: Sydney Dickinson

Subject: Treasury Ridge

Snowpack: We spent the last two days on treasury ridge. Saw that the wine couloirs don’t go yet and a huge mt goat is living up there! Yesterday we skied south aspect. It was supportable but awful skiing. Today after getting denied from the couloir we dropped into rock creek on more of the east aspect and found some good turns in the wind riffles. Also supportable. Finished off the day with some sled laps on Baldy. Someone high marked the gut, got pretty high, no results.

Mountain Weather December 11th, 2017

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/11/2017

With the aid of my crystal ball, I can predict with a high degree of certainty that the sun will rise and fall, then rise and fall, followed by some more rising and falling. The crystal ball also shows a blip in this persistent ridge of high pressure that responsible for the dry weather. So we’ll be talking about a chance of some snow flurries Wednesday night. If you read yesterdays weather forecast, know that the BBBSFSRP group must be working hard as there appears to be some more winter weather for next weekend and maybe even some changes in the weather pattern! We shall see.
Valley inversions are again strong today. Valley temperatures should warm to near 40 degrees today with 11,000 temperatures reaching the mid 30’s. It may be dry but at least it sunny!

  • Today

    High Temperature: 36
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15/NW
    Sky Cover: Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tonight

    High Temperature: 20
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15/N
    Sky Cover: Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0

  • Tomorrow

    High Temperature: 40
    Winds/Direction: 5 to 15/NW
    Sky Cover: Clear
    Irwin Snow: 0
    Elkton Snow: 0
    Friend’s Hut Snow: 0