CB Area

CB Avalanche Center March 18, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: CB Area
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000-9,400

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds, light to moderate down valley winds with a few stronger gusts.
Snowpack: Morning sun and warm temps created hot pow/moist snow conditions down to the 3/13 interface. Traveled on slopes in the mid 20 degree range so the old snow surface was all firm melt freeze crusts. No instabilities or in this terrain.

Coneys

CB Avalanche Center March 18, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Will

Subject: Coneys
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9,500-10,700

Avalanches:
Weather: Warm, dry and windy, Mostly cloudy with with periods of strong sun, mod winds out of the SW.
Snowpack: New storm snow from the prior storm was generally 10cm with snow drifts up to 40cm. Snow depth ranged in the 180 cm to 120 at around 10,000ft, E Aspect. The new snow is F hard compression test result of CTM12RPQ2. See Photos.

E-Aspect-NTL

CTM12PRQ2-Results

Big Wind and Warm

CB Avalanche Center March 18, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: JSJ

Subject: Big Wind and Warm
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: 9,000-11,800′

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds, warm, winds Mod to Strong and increasing throughout the day from the WSW
Snowpack: Big winds transporting snow and loading lee slopes, even BTL. Cornice drop triggered storm slab path from yesterday completely filled back in today. Areas of open terrain scoured down to white ice / MF crusts. Skin track NTL / ATL re filling every 15 min.

Mountain Weather 3/18/16

CB Avalanche Center March 18, 2016Weather

Date: 03/18/2016

Gunnison County is splitting the boundary between active, jet-influenced weather to our north, and mild, sunny weather to our south. It looks like this pattern will stick around all day, with cloudier skies towards the northern end of our forecast zone and continued blustery winds. The jet stream finally packs its bags tonight, with skies clearing under dry but breezy northwest flow. High pressure bringing warm temperatures and lighter winds arrives on Sunday, allowing for open-wardrobe weather for the Al Johnson Race.

Today

High Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 12-22, G40
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 12
Wind Speed: 8-18
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 10-20, G35
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Windy

CB Avalanche Center March 17, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Zach Guy

Subject: Windy
Aspect: South East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000 ft

Avalanches: Fresh natural wind slab ran today on SE face of Ruby Peak, potentially triggered by cornice fall, estimated about a foot deep on a mid-storm layer. SS-NC-R1-D1.5-S. Other crowns that failed yesterday or the night before shown below in photos.
Weather: Scattered clouds, moderate to extreme winds from the SW, and moderate snow transport.
Snowpack: Recent snow is blown out on most west and south aspects. Drifts up to 3′ on east aspects below ridgelines, that weren’t responsive to ski cuts. Stomping on small cross loaded wind whales further down slope caused some cracking and small 10″ pockets, failing on mid-storm layers.

NE aspect, Scarp Ridge

NE aspect, Whetstone

NE aspect, Mt. Axtell

SE aspect, Ruby Peak

Mountain Weather 3/17/16

CB Avalanche Center March 17, 2016Weather

Date: 03/17/2016

The jet stream continues to sag over Colorado, bringing strong northwest flow, but any lingering moisture in this system is too far north to produce accumulating snow for our mountains. The jet weakens and lifts to the northeast into tomorrow, as high pressure begins advancing towards our region for this weekend. We’ll see clearing skies, warming temperatures, and winds finally easing through the weekend.

Today

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 30
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Irwin Cat ski obs

CB Avalanche Center March 16, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/16/2016
Name: Irwin Guides

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

Avalanches: South Face of Ruby had a 60’ wide wind slab release sometime around midday. Ran about 800’ but was not very deep. R1D1.5 but would have taken you over the cliffs.
Weather:
Snowpack: 13” new overnight with little accumulation through the day. New snow well bonded to old crusts and from storm to storm. Hand shears showed a little upside-downness, but didn’t see any associated instabilities. Stiffening some by day’s end from the wind and cold but still not much of a slab.

Cornice drop slide

CB Avalanche Center March 16, 20162015-16 Observations

Location:
Date of Observation: 03/16/2016
Name: JSJ

Subject:
Aspect: East
Elevation: Near treeline

Avalanches: Cornice drop triggered slab avalanche, E aspect NTL D1.5
Weather:
Snowpack:

IMG_0129

IMG_0128

Large naturals in Slate River Valley

CB Avalanche Center March 16, 20162015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/16/2016
Name: Zach Guy

Subject: Large naturals in Slate River Valley
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,300-10,400 ft.

Avalanches: See photos. Observed 5 fresh natural soft slab avalanches on NE aspects N/ATL, and handful of minor sluffs or harmlessly small pockets. Two of these larger slides appeared to be several feet deep failing on the 3/6 facet layer as persistent slabs, with wide propagation and the dust layer faintly visible on the bed surface. One ran naturally sometime this morning. Two were repeat offenders that ran 3/6, that appeared to fail at the storm interface.
Weather: Scattered to broken clouds. Mild temps. Moderate down-valley valley winds with moderate snow transport visible up high from the NW. No precip.
Snowpack: See video. Traveled on wind-sheltered N/NE aspects below treeline. 25-40 cm of storm snow began to settle under periods of direct solar. No signs of instability within the storm snow or at the storm interface, except some minor cracking on steep rollovers. On a 31 degree, NNE slope, I triggered one large collapse stepping out of my skis to dig a pit, 60 cm deep, on the 3/6 facet layer. Tests produced ECTP 14, SC results on this layer (F to 4F slab over F+, 1-1.5mm rounding facets). As slopes tilted towards sunnier NE aspects, this structure became less concerning because a crust layer from last week’s warm-up appears mid slab (3/14 crust layer, ~1” thick, 1F- hard), and slab below it (from our 3/6 storm) has faceted away.

Climax Chutes, NE aspect NTL. Repeat offender this month. Ran full track, ~1800 vert. SS-N-R2-D2-I

“The Shield” on Scarp Ridge. NE aspect ATL. SS-N-R3-D2-O

Schuylkill Ridge. NE aspect NTL. Repeat offender this month. SS-N-R2-D2-I

Schuylkill Ridge. NE aspect NTL. SS-N-R1-D1-U

Schuylkill Ridge. NE aspect NTL. Ran naturally mid-morning. SS-N-R2-D2-O.

Schuylkill Ridge. NE aspect NTL. Ran naturally today. SS-N-R2-D2-O.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche Center March 16, 2016Weather

Date: 03/16/2016

Snowfall will quickly taper off in most areas this morning as the fast moving wave is races eastward. We can expect the higher elevations to hold onto light snow showers longer today as cold air advection in the wake of this system continues to create instability. West winds should begin to subside as well during the day, but tick upwards again tomorrow afternoon as our last weak wave cuts across Colorado and brings light snow accumulations.