Mountain Weather 1/9/2017

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/09/2017

A very moist and warm airmass is pushing into Colorado on Southwest flow. Temperatures are right around the freezing level at 11,000ft Monday morning and will remain near or just above freezing today. There is lot of precipitation in the forecast for Monday, starting to pick up around 7am. Above 11,000ft we’ll see very large snow totals, while below 11,000ft we’ll see a mix rain and snow. These warm temperatures make the snow forecast very difficult. Colder air starts to arrive from the north tonight but temperatures will still rebound to just below freezing at 11,000ft tomorrow. Tomorrow will also bring a loll in precipitation as we await the next round kicking off around Tuesday night. We’ll see another round of heavier precipitation on the Wednesday/Wednesday night timeframe as well. Later in the week there is some disagreement in weather models and we’ll wait to look into that one.

Today

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G40
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 14 to 18

Tonight

Low Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G 40
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 8 to 10

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 30
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G40
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 3 to 6

Large slide across Kebler

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2017
Name: Gunnison SNO Trackers

Subject: Large slide across Kebler
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: Below treeline

Avalanches: An Avalanche slid across the road, just to the west of the Splains Gulch Entrance between the hours of 22:00 and 23:00 (10 – 11 pm) Enough to cover the existing trail in 8’+ of snow. Searched the slide with beacons but found nothing.
Weather:
Snowpack:

IMG_0461

Avy 1 Course

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/08/2017
Name: Dave Bumgarner
Subject: Avy 1 Course
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9,200-11,600

Avalanches:
Weather: (12:50) Elevation 11,600
Temp -4.5c
Sky: obscured
Precip: S 2
Wind: Moderate from the SW
We had a about 8-10cm fall throughout our tour
1mm plates where falling at the above time. Stellars where falling at the beginning of our tour.
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS:
We did not observe any signs of instability throughout our tour.
Snow depth was 165cm -174cm
Boot Pen 50cm
Ski Pen 20 cm
Snow Surface -4c
T20: 18c

Below treeline profile

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/08/2017
Name: Zach Guy and Evan Ross
Subject: Below treeline profile
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9,000 ft

Avalanches:
Weather: S3. Calm winds
Snowpack: HS = 128 cm. 60 cm of soft slab (F to 4F) over Jan 1 interface, which appeared to be a mix of 1-2mm SH needles and .5mm DFs. ECTN 29 PC on this layer. The rest of the snowpack is uniform 1F, except for the bottom ~15 cm which is 4F 1.5-2 mm rounding facets. PST 95/115 END on this layer.

Gothic 7am report

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/08/2017
Name: billy barr
Subject: Gothic 7am report
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather: Light to moderate steady snow starting around 9 p.m. with 5″ new snow so far. I did not do a water measurement but will at 7 a.m. but estimate it to be about 0.25″ as it is a light density. No wind.
Snowpack:

Avy Cycle Obs from Around Town and Mt. Emmons

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/07/2017
Name: Arden Feldman
Subject: Avy Cycle Obs from Around Town and Mt. Emmons
Aspect:
Elevation: Below, Near, and Above Tree Line

Avalanches: See photos. Lots of evidence of natural avalanche cycle at all elevations in the Crested Butte Area. Sizes range from D1 to D2.5. The larger slides likely ran on the storm interface and the smaller ones on mid storm instabilities. Did not observe any avalanches that ran to the ground.

 

Weather: Increasing cloudiness through the day becoming overcast late in the afternoon. Calm and cold BTL. NTL and ATL Moderate winds with moderate snow transport.
Snowpack: NTL and ATL had wind stripped areas and funky wind crusts. BTL provided nice skiing.
Small surface hoar observed around my house while shoveling in the morning.

D2.5 NE aspect of Climax Chutes
D1.5 NE aspect of Happy Chutes
D2.5 NE aspect of Mt. Whetstone
D1 NE aspect of Gibson Ridge
D1.5 E aspect of Gibson Ridge
D2 NE aspect of Mt. Axtell
Multiple D2-2.5 avalanches on SE and E aspects of Peeler Peak
D2 NNE aspect of Redwell Basin
D2 SE aspect of Evans Basin
D2 E aspect of Evans Basin

No signs of problematic weak layers

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area. Gothic-Snodgrass saddle
Date of Observation: 01/07/2017
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: No signs of problematic weak layers
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 9,500-11,500

Avalanches: Other then previously reported avalanches from the last cycle. 3xSS-N-R2-D1.5/2 Red Coon Bowl 11,400-11,800ft E-SE. N-R2-D2/2.5? East Face of Mineral Point.
Weather: Calm winds. Increasing sky becoming overcast by 1pm.
Snowpack: No obvious signs to instability while traveling on slopes up to 40 degrees. Dug down to the 1/1 interface in several locations between 10,500ft and 11,000ft on southeast and east aspects. CT test were necessary to identify the interface as layer id was otherwise very difficult in a fairly homogenous looking snowpack. CT results at the interface were hard and sudden. Though grain size difference was minimal around the interface and there was no change in hardness.

Boot pen was 40cm and ski pen about 5-10cm. HS in areas traveled was about 185cm on average.

Mountain Weather 1/8/2016

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/08/2017

Now the weather forecast is really getting fun and hard to believe. We just got out of a large winter storm a few days ago and this week we’re going right back into another one. We’ll have a few inches of new snow today and rising temperatures as warm moist air starts infiltrating on southwest flow. When I say warm temperatures I’m talking near freezing as we head into Monday. A large plume of moisture is streaming into the US on westerly flow, similar to last weeks storm. So think very warm moist snow this afternoon and especially tomorrow. Monday night into Tuesday looks like the best snow producer for our area as winds become more westerly and temperatures cool. The mid-week also looks to be unsettled with continued snow showers, though not as heavy as this Monday night-Tuesday window.

Today

High Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 15 to 25
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 2 to 4

Tonight

Low Temperature: 27
Wind Speed: 15 to 25
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 4 to 6

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G40
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 10 to 15

SW Face of Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/07/2017
Name: Chris Pruden
Subject: SW Face of Snodgrass
Aspect: South West
Elevation: 9500′-10600′

Avalanches: On the decent we experienced some surprising whumping collapses but saw no avalanche activity.
Weather: Temps: Single digits in the morning warming as we climbed to around 20 F at its warmest.

Sky: High clouds building throughout the day.

Wind: Light and variable all day.

Precip: None.
Snowpack: Snow pack depth varied from 140cm to 190cm, deeper as we climbed. No obvious signs of instability on the way up. Resistant planar fracture in compression test with 13 taps. The extended column test also showed a resistant planar fracture but it took 3 moderate loading steps to drive the failure across the column. Both tests fractured on buried surface hoar 60cm down from the surface.

Obs at snodgrass remote trigger

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/07/2017
Name: Avy 1 Course
Subject: Obs at snodgrass remote trigger
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 10500

Avalanches: Avalanche Elevation: 9900 (photos attached)
This was remotely triggered from our skin track
Aspect:South east
Slope: 40
Seem to fracture on the same layer we saw results on in our pit.
D 1.5?
We got a large whumph/collapse which we felt triggered the slide
Weather: sky cover broken to scattered throughout day
No new precipitation
Temp: – 6c to -4c
Wind: Light
Snowpack: Pit Elevation: 10500
Snow Depth 177cm
Aspect:East
Slope: 26
CT17, CT21 RP 62cm down on 1cm Facets (SH?)
ECT was inconclusive but did break on the same layer as the CT test

We skied a 28 slope felt a large whumph at the bottom

file1
Remote-Trigger-Snodgrass