Mountain Weather 2/14/2016

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/14/2016

The big old ridge of high pressure responsible for our dry weather is letting moisture spill over its top today, before rebuilding Monday night and returning us to dry weather next week. Northern Colorado will start seeing snow this morning while we’ll have to wait until this afternoon to see that moisture move into the central mountains. There isn’t much instability in the atmosphere during this period so we’ll mainly be relying on orographic lift from northwest flow to produce our snow. So we’ll likely see the classic snow accumulation west of Crested Butte, with only a dusting here in town.

Today

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0-2 West

Tonight

Low Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2 East, 2-4 West

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 30
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0 to 1

Wet snow obs

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/13/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Wet snow obs
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9,200-12,400 ft

Avalanches:
Weather: Thin few to scattered clouds increased to thick overcast by late p.m. Strong to extreme gusts at ridgetop out of the NW, with light transport at times. Warm temps.
Snowpack: Strong winds were keeping surfaces mostly frozen at upper elevations, today. Above treeline on a 40* SE aspect, there was 2-3″ of refreezing melt-freeze crust, semi-supportive on skis, with dry snow below. On a 30* SE aspect below treeline, there was 3″ of very wet snow at the surface with moist snow down to the Jan 29th crust, about 15″ deep. On a 35* S aspect below treeline, the snowpack was entirely wet to very wet, about 20-24″ total depth. No signs of instability today.

Owen/Purple Cirque

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/13/2016
Name: Nick Schley
Subject: Owen/Purple Cirque
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 11,700-12,300

Avalanches: Multiple old wet loose avalanches on Purples south face. One that seemed to trigger small slab R1 D1 but underneath a rock outcrop.
Weather: Clear, warm morning, light local winds from SW.
Snowpack: Did a fair amount of probing on a ~12,300 ft contour line on E-NE-N facing slopes HS between 270cm and probe eating. Jan. 29 interface seemed to be down 60-90cm depending on place. Dug a pit on N facing slope at 12,300 near Jenga, HS 355cm , only tested top 110cm’s, no results with CT and ECT tests. Jan. 29 slab was pencil hard resting on 1F hard slab .5mm facets at 60cm. Snow surface primarily stiff wind board and sastrugi. Textured sas skied best. We did trigger one long shooting crack ~50ft on Purples south face, enroute to S Couli, snow surface was still knife hard, boot pen was 1-3 cm. Not sure how deep crack went into pack, we quickly retreated.

Mountain Weather 2/13/2016

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/13/2016

A brief change in our stagnant weather pattern begins this afternoon. A weak trough passes to our north over the weekend, bringing increasing clouds and winds with cooler temperatures by tomorrow. Moist, northwest flow follows in its wake, and should spread light snowfall to the favored snow belt by Sunday night. We can hope for a few inches to refresh the surface before high pressure re-establishes next week.

Today

High Temperature: 37
Wind Speed: 7-17
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0

Tonight

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

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 15-25
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-1″

Wolverine Basin

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/12/2016
Name: Seth Beers
Subject: Wolverine Basin
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,000

Avalanches: No signs of instability during tour + no recent avalanches observed.
A majority of the steeper slopes and rollovers appeared to slide in the basin during the natural cycle post running on the mid-Jan surface facet layer.
Weather: Clear, warm, light SW winds
Snowpack: HS ~140cm. Ski Pen 10 – 15 cm, Boot Pen ~30 cm.
Surface snow was a mixed bag of sun crusts, wind effected snow and decaying powder/facets. There was also quite a bit of new surface hoar located at lower, tree covered areas around Gunsight Pass road. We did not observe this new layer as we moved higher.
Dug very briefly to see the mid-Jan surface facet layer + observe any SH that survived and was buried. Upper ~50 cm was F to 4F+ of what appeared to be rounding facets from our recent storm. This sat over a stout 1F slab. The mid Jan surface facets separated the two layers. Did not conduct stability tests but the SF layer appeared small + showed smaller grains that I remember from prior pits. There were no SH layers in the area I dug.

Mt Emmons

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/12/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Mt Emmons
Aspect: North, South East, North West
Elevation: 9,000 to 12,000′

Avalanches:
Weather: Mostly Clear, a few high thin cirrus clouds. Calm winds at ridgeline. Hot enough to lay down and take a nap.
Snowpack: Near and above treeline snow surface conditions are just rocked by previous winds. Lots of wind effected snow, some firm wind board 1-3″ thick and some wind textured curdled cream type snow. Ski pen about 10cm on the lumpy cream type snow.

Dry snow on NE and N facing slopes. Southeast facing slopes only seemed to be moist down 5-10cm. More protected and steeper SE slopes probably had a thicker moist surface.

Old slide on Baldy

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2016
Name: Than Acuff
Subject: Old slide on Baldy
Aspect: North West
Elevation: Above treeline

Avalanches: See photo
Weather:
Snowpack:

baldy

Snowpack Obs

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2016
Name: JD
Subject: Snowpack Obs
Aspect: North
Elevation: 11,000′

Avalanches: Nothing recent, except small loose wet on due south, rocky slope approx 14:30. Did not notice on sled in so assume it was new
Weather: Bluebird. Winds light in the am but increased in early pm, mostly out of the southwest. Minor snow transport
Snowpack: North facing slope below Schuylkill Peak. HS 240cm. Nonreactive to stability tests. Highly variable snow surface but textured surfaces skied fine.

Mountain Weather 2/12/16

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/12/2016

Second verse, same as the first. The sunny and clear weather continues today under high pressure parked over the Great Basin. The high pressure ridge flattens on Saturday, allowing several weak shortwaves to pass to our north over the weekend. This brings an increase in clouds on Saturday and the chance for light snowfall spreading south to our mountains by Sunday night. The ridge re-establishes next week.

Today

High Temperature: 38
Wind Speed: 2-12
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 35
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Coney’s

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2016
Subject: Coney’s

Avalanches: A new wet loose slide on SE slopes of Gothic Spoon rock band (D1), otherwise no signs of instability other than old crowns from previous storm cycle.
Weather: Warm temps, above freezing with moderate down valley (NW) winds keeping things cool. High temp of +6 in valley floor where sheltered from the wind.
Snowpack: Well settled snowpack with some sun crusts, wind crusts, wind stiffened and a little pow. Average HS 140cm. Moist snow in the valley on anything tipped to the south. NNE facing snow remained dry. Ski pen 6″ Boot pen a little more than a foot.