WA Gulch-Gothic-Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/12/2016
Name: ADB
Subject: WA Gulch-Gothic-Snodgrass
Aspect: East, North West
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: 1045: rollers below our skin track on east facing slopes below Gothic Mountain
11AM: Partner said I set off a 50-foot AS-WS-R1-D1 upon skiing the convexity on a moraine. He said it was slow moving. Occurred on same east face.
Weather: Before 11AM: clear, calm, very warm.
After 11 AM scattered to broken sky, Light winds, with some temperature drop
Snowpack: East/West facing-spring snow
north facing-winter snow

Aspen to CB Via Pearl Pass. 3/8-3/11

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Aspen to CB Via Pearl Pass. 3/8-3/11
Aspect: North, East, South
Elevation: Mainly ATL up to 12,700ft

Weather: Dry and warm most of the week with Wednesday as the exception, with light snow showers and mostly cloudy to over cast sky and moderate southwest winds.
Snowpack: New storm snow from the prior weekend was generally in the 20cm range ATL and drifted up to 40cm on leeward slopes, or blown off of some other wind effected slopes. On northerly aspects the 3/6 interface was mostly a 5-10cm thick wind crust or wind packed particles capping a varying layer of facets below. Didn’t observe any concerning instability on this 3/6 interface and the new snow wasn’t a thick enough slab to worry about collapsing the wind crusts capping facets below. This general summery for northerly aspects stayed the same through the week

On Thursday an ATL easterly aspect was staying dry where it had any slight northerly tilt and turning to hot pow or moist to wet at the surface as it leaned more southeasterly. No concerning instabilities observed.

Scarp Ridge/ Redwell

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/12/2016
Name: Will
Subject: Scarp Ridge/ Redwell
Aspect: North, East, South East, South, North West
Elevation: 9,000-12,000

Avalanches:
Weather: High clouds, light SW winds at ridge top, Hot!
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Lots of loose wet avalanche activity on S-SE aspects running on steep slopes from rock bands D1-1.5 in Size. Breakable crust in the am 9am on S-Se slope warming around 11am creating roller balls and small wet loose sloughs. NE-N-NE BLT warmed up quite a bit today with small Wet Loose actively. NTL an ATL no instability observed.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 3/12/16

A low pressure system will track across the desert Southwest today, and is already streaming moisture and mid-level clouds overhead this morning. There is a dry slot upstream of us which might offer some breaks in cloud cover this morning before the brunt of the system spreads northwards across our mountains later this afternoon. Snow totals looks to be in the 1-3″ range, but some convective cells could produce localized higher amounts. Dry air will follow in the wake of this system on Sunday. Sunday evening kicks off an extended period of moist zonal to northwest flow, supported by the jet stream. We can look forward to a foot of snow or more by mid-week.

Today

High Temperature: 34
Wind Speed: 3-13
Wind Direction: SW, W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 1-3″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 40
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Africa Hot

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2016
Name: JSJ
Subject: Africa Hot
Aspect: North, East, South East, South, North West
Elevation: 9,000-12,400

Avalanches: Lots of loose wet avalanche activity observed from yesterday and today. Mostly all D1-1.5 in size. All on steep slopes, but found at all elevations and even saw a few wet loose on NW-N-NE aspects BTL, where terrain was open to solar gain, steep, and rocky.
Weather: High clouds, light SW winds at ridge top, hot air T*
Snowpack: North & NW facing timbered terrain NTL & BTL, found a slight MF/Temp crust from yesterday, and moist snow in the top 10cms where slope angles were below 35* and gaining solar from high angle of incidence March sun. Surfaces on these aspects remained dry ATL as of 1300.

Warm and wet loose

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Warm and wet loose
Aspect: East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000 ft

Avalanches: Skier triggered one small loose wet on a steep E aspect ATL. Looked like two D1.5 loose wet were skier triggered on the S face of Mt. Owen. Fairly widespread loose wet activity from yesterday on E, S, W aspects on most steep, rocky slopes N/ATL, D1 in size.
Weather: Hottest day of this year. Temps reached 50F at 10k and 38F at 12k. Calm to light winds. Few clouds built to scattered thin by late afternoon.
Snowpack: 3/6 crust remained frozen and supportive, but top 6″ thawed and became very wet, with shallow wet loose instabilities developing by 11:30 a.m. on east aspects and rotating around the southern end of the compass. We even observed rollerballs on NE aspect NTL today.

The two loose wet avalanches off the south face appeared to be skier triggered today (3/11). The other slides off the E/SE ridge ran naturally yesterday (3/10)

The two loose wet avalanches off the south face appeared to be skier triggered today (3/11). The other slides off the E/SE ridge ran naturally yesterday (3/10)

S/SE face of purple peak, with small loose wet avalanches that ran naturally 3/10.

S/SE face of purple peak, with small loose wet avalanches that ran naturally 3/10.

Schuykill Avi Activity

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2016
Subject: Schuykill Avi Activity
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10800

Avalanches: Skier remotely triggered avalanche in thanksgiving bowl while skiing the ridge. Broke about 100′ to skiers right with a 10” crown roughly 50′ wide and ran 700′. Picture in MRs post a couple obs down. A second much smaller avalanche broke at skiers feet 500′ below where the first started. Roughly 15′ wide and running 30′. Skier was able to ski out of it.
Weather: Clear
Snowpack:

Mountain Weather 3/11/16

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/11/2016

Pack your beach towel, sunscreen, and favorite cold beverage. Today will bring the heat again, a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday with some thin high clouds overhead. Flow becomes warmer and out of the southwest ahead of a low pressure trough moving onshore today. As that system rides south of our mountains, we’ll see cloud cover thicken overnight into tomorrow, and the potential for some light snowfall on Saturday. Brief ridging brings back dry weather on Sunday before a more potent system develops for early next week.

Today

High Temperature: 45
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 3-13
Wind Direction: S
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2″

Red Lady Glades

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2016
Name: Dave
Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9,300-12,392

Avalanches: New snow from Mondays storm has had a chances to warm up on S-SE with the high temps creating wet loose slides running on the dust crust at Elv 11,000. I ski cut a small (D1) wet loose and Chris got one to go after he skied down. (see photos) There was a skier triggered larger wet loose in the steeper area that a solo skied triggered before we got there. Also Will’s group got a large crack but nothing moved when they where above the steep part of the glades.
Weather: Clear skies, warm calm winds at 11,000 Elv T20= 0°C Surf 1*C Air=7°C
Snowpack:

IMG_0280
IMG_0278

Whetstone

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Whetstone
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 8,800 – 12,100

Avalanches: None in this area. Observed a handful of fresh wet loose today further up valley in areas that had more snow from the last storm (Mineral Pt, Mt. CB, White Mtn, etc) on SE, S, SW, and W aspects N/ATL, all D1 to D1.5 in size.
Weather: Warm temps. Measured 34*F at 12,100 ft at 14:30. Calm to light breeze from the west. A few thin clouds.
Snowpack: See video. 2-4″ of settled storm snow was not enough to cause any real concerns for wet loose or our new layer of persistent slabs over the 3/6 facets in this area. On SE and S facing slopes, the recent storm snow became wet and consolidated to less than an inch thick above the still frozen 3/6 crust/dust layer without any rollerballs. On the most windloaded ATL slopes facing NE, there was 8″ of F+ settled snow over the 3/6 facet layer, and we did not see signs of instability or get any results on this layer in a pit. I probed around on several E and NE facing slopes above treeline and found a widely variable structure, generally shallow. Profile from a somewhat representative location below.

3/10. Snow profile on NE aspect ATL of Whetstone Mtn

3/10. Snow profile on NE aspect ATL of Whetstone Mtn

DSCN0684

Natural wet loose off of S face of Mineral Point