Avalanches: NA:
No cracking, collapsing, or whumping on skin track in an extremely heavily used area.
Weather: Dawn:
S-1 to S1 snowfall with light to moderate winds transporting snow
Cold temperatures
Snowpack: Less than 8 cm of new cold snow with about 2.5 cm blown back into low skin tracks
Avalanches: A skier triggered collapse at ridgeline initiated a small slab avalanche on a northeast facing slope near treeline. The slab was about 14″ thick, and failed on the 3/6 facet layer. SS-AS-R1-D1-O. This slope failed nearly full-width last storm on the same layer (see the last photo in this ob), and we basically just cleaned out a piece of hangfire with today’s slide. Otherwise, I would have expected a more impressive avalanche in terms of size and propagation.
Weather: Broken to overcast skies. No precip to S-1. Cool temps. Strong, northwest winds, with brief periods of light to moderate transport.
Snowpack:Â See video. ~3″ of dense new snow in wind-sheltered BTL slopes, heavily redistributed by westerly winds at all elevations. 6″ drifts below treeline, and up to 18″ 4F drifts near treeline. Largest drifts below ridgelines and patches of scoured and pockets of loaded further down slope. On drifted terrain features, we skier triggered shooting cracks on the crusty storm interface on various aspects/elevations. See photos. On a windloaded feature on a north aspect NTL, we got repeatable moderate ECTP results on the dusty 3/6 facet layer (fist hard, 1-1.5 mm facets), about 18″ deep. The slab appeared to be the most variable component of this north-facing persistent slab distribution; scoured away by winds in some places, loaded in others. We got 2 moderate collapses on this layer on low angle, northerly slopes near treeline, and got shooting cracks below treeline on this layer on north facing wind drifted pockets, ~6″ deep.
Dusty 3/6 facet layer, about 12-18″ deep, produced propagating results, collapses, and a small skier triggered pocket on northerly aspects NTL.
Shooting cracks on storm interface, ~10-15″ deep below a windloaded ridgeline, SE aspect NTL.
Shooting cracks on storm interface, ~10-15″ deep below a windloaded ridgeline, SE aspect NTL.
Collapsing and shooting cracks on a north aspect NTL, on the 3/6 facet layer.
Cracks and small pockets on E aspect BTL, on crusty storm interface
Avalanches:
Weather: Some weather to report but nothing nice with light snow but steady strong wind driving and drifting snow. A dense now with 4″ new and water of 0.34″. Gusting into the 40 mph area but in general; a steady 10-15 mph W wind. Snow pack at 42½”, far below average for this date in what has become a very dry winter.
Currently light snow and steady wind with obscured cloud cover. A nasty day. billy
Snowpack:
Date: 03/15/2016
Snow will gradually taper off shortly after sunrise in most locations, with the highest terrain holding onto snow showers most the day. After a bit of a lull midday, another round of snow looks to develop across our area mountains mid-afternoon, with the heaviest snow falling after sunset. Strong west to northwest winds do not look like they will subside until after the large scale trough passes tomorrow. Temperatures look ideal for snow production over the next 24 hours with temperatures around -10ºC at 10,000ft and -25ºC at 18,000ft giving good instability for the orographic machine to churn.
High Temperature: 22
Wind Speed: 20-30 G50
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 2-4″ PM
Low Temperature: 10
Wind Speed: 20-30 G50
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 3-6″
High Temperature: 22
Wind Speed: 15-25 G40
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 1-3″
Avalanches: Nothing new. No signs of instability today.
Weather: Clear in the a.m. built to broken skies. Light to moderate westerly winds. Warm temps.
Snowpack: Frozen surfaces thawed on E and S aspects, but not saturated enough for wet loose concerns. Went hunting for concerning persistent slab structure on northerly aspects and it was hard to find. Slab thickness over the 3/6 interface increased from ~6″ in the southern end of the Ruby Range, up to 15″ in the northern end. Everywhere that I dug down to the 3/6 interface on northerly, above-treeline slopes I found this slab well-bonded to a firm wind crust. The one wind-protected slope where I expected to find a worrisome structure with NSF had already slid naturally during our last storm. Did not travel on any wind protected near-treeline slopes which seems the most likely place to find the problem still. Below treeline on a north aspect, the slab was moist, ~8″ thick over a 1″ thick friable melt-freeze crust , with dry, 1.5mm facets below. Moderate ECTN failures on these facets. Concerning structure if we see more load. Surfaces for this incoming storm are generally smooth suncrusts/meltfreeze crusts, except for steep slopes below rockbands which are littered with rollerballs or wet loose debris, and north facing slopes which are still holding dry, settled powder.
Avalanches:
Weather: Clear in the am, 2pm overcast. No precip. Warm day 40f ,15-20 mph wind from the W above tree line.
Snowpack: Warm beginning increasing to hot was the theme of the day. Strong solar in the morning combined with only a 20f freeze overnight resulted in a rapid warming of the snow pack on East through south aspects.Small D1 avalanche observed SW facing terrain in Evans basin, skier triggered 15-20 cm deep. Snow on the East ridge of Evans basins at 1;30 was moist. Foot pen 25cm , ski pen 10cm. Roller balls from ski cuts. Wind kept the snow at higher elevations colder.
Avalanches:
Weather: clearer skies in the morning, clouds built throughout the day to scattered in the afternoon. Light winds, increased winds in the alpine. Temps where warm BTL in the low 30’s, winds kept things cooler in the alpine.
Snowpack: no real signs of instability, some signs of warming on southern aspects close to the waterfall area. Few roller balls. The tracks from yesterday were almost all filled in.
Date: 03/14/2016
Strong winds (especially above 11,000ft), and occasional snow showers will be the theme for today’s weather. Colorado is under westerly flow with an incoming storm that will favor northern Colorado. The Central Mountains are on the southern edge of forecasted snowfall but we should still accumulate a few inches of new snow by tomorrow. Snow showers look to pick up late this afternoon and into tonight, as colder air starts pushing into Colorado from the northwest. This cold front will help snow accumulations across our forecast area, but at the same time available moisture looks to start drying out. So we’ll have to rely more on local orographics which will lead to better snow accumulation in the mountains west/north of crested butte. Snow showers will taper on Tuesday but we’ll continue to see partly cloudy skys and occasional snow showers into Wednesday.
High Temperature: 30
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G35
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 1 to 3 PM
Low Temperature: 12
Wind Speed: 15 to 25 G35
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 2 to 4
High Temperature: 22
Wind Speed: 10 to 20 G 30
Wind Direction:
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: Tr to 2
Avalanches: Nothing new observed.
Weather: Moderate westerly winds at ridgeline. Clear sky in the morning becoming partly cloudy to overcast in the afternoon.
Snowpack: Didn’t find any of those mythical near surface facets on the 3/6 interface while touring, mostly above treeline on northerly facing slopes. The 3/6 interface was most commonly a very firm wind board. Hand pits were not producing planner results and and the snowpack structure surrounding the 3/6 interface didn’t look to concerning. However we didn’t really travel on any sheltered or wind protected slopes that would have had a better chance of holding NSF at the 3/6 interface..
Snow surfaces consisted of decomposing particles, wind ripple, wind crusts and melt freeze crusts. Nothing overly concerning on the surfaces for the slopes we traveled
Date: 03/13/2016
Clear skys and mild weather will start our day off, before the next round of pacific moisture starts arriving later this afternoon. With its arrival we’ll see building high clouds this afternoon and increasing winds tonight. Our central mountains will be on the southern edge of Mondays snowfall but we should still see some flurries tonight before picking up a few inches of snow on Monday. Winds look to stay elevated through the start of the week with periods of light snowfall.
High Temperature: 40
Wind Speed: 5 to 15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0
Low Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0 to 2
High Temperature: 34
Wind Speed: 15 to 25
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 2 to 4
