Mountain Weather 1/18/2016

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/18/2016

A small ridge is creating dryer weather this morning, but we’ll already begin seeing increased clouds again today ahead of the next disturbance arriving tonight. We should see the sun popping out at times today, but the cloud forecast is a tough one to nail down. The weather patter stays similar to what we’ve seen since Thursday, as this next smallish trough moves in. Snowfall accumulation looks to be in the 2-4” range and flow looks to be more westerly. So we don’t look to have the moist northwest component that produced large accumulations over the weekend in the western portion of our area. The next and possibly better looking disturbance is lined up and will be moving into our area around Tuesday night. Keep em coming baby!

Today

High Temperature: 25 to 30
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 10 to 15
Wind Speed: 10 to 20
Wind Direction: E, W
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 2 to 4

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 25 to 30
Wind Speed: 5 to 15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0 to 2

Anthracites

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2016
Name: Ian havlick
Subject: Anthracites
Aspect: North, North East, West
Elevation: 10000-11800

Avalanches: SE facing bowl on other side of ridge from 7th bowl slid naturally and we may have remotely triggered another pocket in same feature while skinning above. Slab looked 2ft deep and slid unimpressively into pungeys below (400ft). Widespread but shallow storm instability looked to have run early morning , fractured as slabs but ran as sluffs. Harmless.
Weather: Light to moderate snow during tour 9-12am. Moderate to strong west-northwesterly winds all day near and above treeline. Patches of sun toward midday and temps in 20s
Snowpack: Deeeep. 20″ of new snow and bottomless. Westerly winds were stripping snow efficiently off west and northwest facing terrain and loading onto east bowl and Lee aspects. Drifts were 6-8ft in trees and waist deep across standard ski track above 7th bowl. Anywhere the wind didn’t touch was very uncnsolidated and lacked any slab. However, more wind exposed areas had 4f hard slabs, obvious scalloping, growing cornices.

image2_1_ image3_3_ image4_2_ image1_4_

Crested Butte Area

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2016
Name: Dave
Subject: Crested Butte Area
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,500- 10,800

Avalanches:
Weather: Morning was overcast with moderate snow (S2). Afternoon snow was light and got some breaks of sun through the clouds Light wind; temps in teens,
Snowpack: We toured up the west side of coney’s, put in skin track & did one lap. HS ranged from 100cm to 140cm in measured areas. New snow was 15+ cm of 1-2cm +. There was twice as much snow at coney’s compared to the packing lot. Boot pen 35 cm ski pen 15cm. Ridge top wind loading, cornices have grown since last week. Skiing was super good. Lots of tracks in coney’s but still room for some more.

Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Snodgrass
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,400-10,200

Avalanches: Several naturel avalanches in the alpine. Fresh D2 debris could be seen below the east face of Gothic and the Spork. The White Mountain massif had at least one R1-D2 windslab on a cross loaded rib.
Weather: Mostly Cloudy. S1 snow showers obscuring the sky at times. A few down valley gusts drifting snow but mostly light winds throughout the day.
Snowpack: HS in the 90-110 range. Not a big change in snowpack structure from slopes that avalanched during the Christmas cycle and lower angle areas that didn’t avalanche. Just a weak structure all around with about 6-7″ of new storm snow from the last several days over mostly fist hard facets. boot pin to the ground. No avalanche problems found in the terrain we traveled through.

A few terrain features looked like they may have some small cross loaded windslabs.

Natural wind slab on White Mountain Massif, cross loaded southeast aspect. R1-D2.

Avalanches at Kebler Pass & Irwin

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/17/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Avalanches at Kebler Pass & Irwin
Aspect: West, Southeast
Elevation: N/BTL

Avalanches: On a SE aspect near treeline, a 2lb handshot triggered a large soft slab, 65 cm deep and ~200 ft wide, that failed in a thin facet layer below the Jan 14th meltfreeze crust.  SS-AE-R2-D2-O.  See profile. Widespread storm slab instability with more than a dozen natural and skier/snow cat triggered soft slabs (Fist hard, 3-10” deep, failing on precip particles) along various aspects of Kebler Pass Road and on Irwin terrain. Minor propagation decreased through the day (max 60 feet wide, avg 20-30 ft), and easily managed, ran more like loose snow avalanches. Harmless in size. SS-ASc/AK/N-R1-D1-S
Weather: Calm to light winds, with moderate gusts from S to W. S-1 to S2 snowfall. Overcast skies.
Snowpack: 18” of very low density snow with minimal wind affect fell last night. On west aspects N/BTL, the storm interface (Jan 14th near-surface facet layer) is ~30” deep in relatively windsheltered terrain; deeper or shallower in wind affected terrain. One pit in an untrafficked area showed the layer is unreactive; size/hardness change was indistinct, with small grained rounding facets at the interface. See profile 1. On SE aspects near treeline, the slab was 26″ deep, but denser from wind effects, over reactive crust/facet/crust sandwiches. See profile 2 and avalanche ob.

Upper snowpack on a west aspect near treeline
1/17. Crown Profle SS-AE-R2-D2-O

1/17. Crown Profle SS-AE-R2-D2-O

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

1/17. Explosive triggered slab avalanche at Irwin. SE aspect NTL.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/17/2016

Our latest fast moving shot of snow and increased winds moved through our area just before sunset yesterday and we will see continued unsettled weather today, with an increase in winds aloft and increased upward motion producing periods of heavier snowfall this morning. Look for higher elevations to continue to pick up light snow through Monday under favorable orographics and cold air advection. Temperatures and winds should moderate after today’s more violent windy storm slides past the Elk Mountains.

Today

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 10-20 G30
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 2-4″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0-1″

Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2016
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject:
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9600-10800

Avalanches:
Weather: High around 15F, small period of S-1towards the end of the afternoon, Light winds out of NE. Scattered sky most of the day.
Snowpack: HS ranges from 85-100 cm. 10 cm of new snow from the last storm. No signs of instability, 26cm boot pen/15cm ski pen, CT20 on the ground facet layer. 3-4 cm facets on the ground. There is aspect of a 4f soft slab in this area. I skied the north ski of snodgrass yesterday and the snow did not have any aspect of a slab.

East River/White Mountain

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2016
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: East River/White Mountain
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 8800-11300

Avalanches: no new avalanches observed
Weather: Scattered to broken skies, with some pleasant sun in the morning. Cold and steady N-NW winds all day, no new snow. no sensible solar radiation.
Snowpack: 3″ new, semi-dense wind effected snow overnight, blown around into various thicknesses of wind crust/slab 3-24″ deep in some areas. All new snow fell on large facets, ski pen was still 20cm, boot pen to ground. Did feel two medium sized whoomphs while travelling on the thickest fresh wind drifts of the day near a small ridgeline. Steady and significant windloading E-SE-S aspects above treeline.

Copper Creek near Gothic

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Copper Creek Level 1 Obs
Aspect: North, West
Elevation: 9000-10500

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Short tour up copper creek to west facing slide path around 10400f btl. No Avalanche problems on slopes less then 35 degrees. Could have found small sluffs on steeper slopes. Found 1, 2-8″ wind slab over nsf with shooting cracks. Slab was only about 15 feet long and 3 feet wide. Looked like a few other very small wind slabs in the terrain. Cold temps and gusty westerly winds blowing snow at times.

Gothic Area

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2016
Name: Donny
Subject: Gothic Area
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9,500′ to 11,200′

Avalanches:
Weather: Light snow until about 3PM, HST 4″ to 6″; Moderate north wind in valley and ridges; temps in the teens all day.
Snowpack: No signs of instabilities all day. New snow of 4″ to 6″ is still fist hard, and only slightly slabbing up in a few places. Average HS between 60cm and 80cm. SkiPen of 30cm to 40cm all day. BootPen basically full depth.