Snodgrass/Gothic

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/04/2016
Name: Donny Roth
Subject: Snodgrass/Gothic
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9500-11200

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds in PM, high temp of +3ºC @ 12:00 @ 10,400’, Calm all day
Snowpack: No signs of instabilities all day; SkiPen around 5 to 10cm on average while skinning; surface was moist on south aspects, SH in the shade. South aspect between 10,800’ and 11,200’ had an HS 90 to 100 cm with the bottom 20cm being well developed facets and upper 70cm being a cohesive slab that had more resistance in the bottom. This was the most concerning snow I found all day and we worked low-angle terrain in the trees. Moving to the east, we found a slope that had avalanched previously. There was an average HS of 50cm, 4F snow that was mostly stronger at the bottom with the thin crust and a thin layer of facets under it. We skied a short 35º pitch and then it mellowed to lower 30s. We had no signs of instabilities.

Old Fractures

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2016
Name: Pete Sowar
Subject: Old Fractures
Aspect:
Elevation: 10-13,000
“fresh crack party that skied slope possibly triggered or did not notice”

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/04/2016

Temperatures have slowly moderated from our frigid overnight lows on Friday. High clouds from weak systems to our southwest will continue to move into our area and we may see some light accumulations over the next few days as the atmosphere settles into a more “classic” El Nino setup. Ridging will build over the great basin over the week and push moisture closer to the Mexico border. No big headliner storms on tap, but we look to sneak 3-6” over the next few days if all goes well.

Irwin Tenure

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2016
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject: Irwin Tenure
Aspect: West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000

Avalanches: Shallow wind slabs D1 in Lone Wolf,
nothing of note. Field of Screams had 2 big releases. 1 on a 9£ jug in the middle of
gut. SS-AE-R2-D2-O/G running on the facets at the bottom. Almost a hard slab as
there were some bigger chunks, but flowed like a SS. Second one went on a 20£
airblast above the crown in the hangfire. SS-AB-R2-D2-O/G. Crown depth extremely
variable from 6” to 4’
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Red Lady Bowl

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2016
Name: Donny Roth
Subject: Red Lady Bowl
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 10,000-12,400

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds throughout day, strongest solar in a while in early afternoon, no wind, temps in 20s for most of day.
Snowpack: No signs of instabilities. SkiPen around 10cm while ascending, 20cm while descending. SH in all the usual places. Surface snow was moist on steeper, southern aspects.

Baldy

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2016
Name: than
Subject: Baldy
Aspect: South
Elevation: ATL

Avalanches: nothing new observed
Weather: No wind, warm up high
Snowpack: ski pen 8 inches, skied south bowl, boot top goodness. One minor collapse as third of three skiers was cutting across top of bowl

Ruby Peak

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Ruby Range
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 12,600-10,600
Weather: Clear becoming overcast with high thin clouds. Calm wind. Warming temps compared to the last several days.
Snowpack: HS was generally around 70-90cm up to about 12,000ft where the snowpack became much deeper in starting zones. A pit at 12,150 on a south aspect (attached) didn’t produce any results on the Christmas Storm Interface. Snowpack structure mostly felt the same through probing on other slopes traveled, just with shallower HS.

Another south aspect ever so slightly west of the previous had a very fat, or loaded start zone that was avoided.

Avalanches: During the Christmas natural cycle, the south bowl on the east side of the divider rip, avalanched naturally wall to wall from about 1/3 of the way down the track, at the slopes steepest slope angeles. The south bowl on the west side of the divider rib had also released naturally during the same storm with about 3/4th of the start zone pulling out from what looked like westerly wind loading. Both of these crowns are now nearly filled in and difficult to see.

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Paradise Divide

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2016
Name: Steve Banks
Subject: Paradise Divide
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Skied on a south-southwest aspect slopes 30-35 degrees with no current signs of instability. Thermometer was broken, but very cold in the morning and warmed nicely in the sun in the afternoon. Warm enough for the snow to get a little moist, but I don’t think it will have a crust tomorrow. Winds were light to non-existent from the west and the temperature quickly plummeted again as the sun went down.
Probing showed 150-170 cm average depth with a consistent snow pack and it seemed there was little in the way of basel weaknesses on this sunny slope. At higher elevations it felt as though there were older crusts in the snowpack, but they were not super pronounced. Good quality, supportive skiing with a ski pen around boot top and boot pen to the knee.
Lots of small slides from the light snow earlier in the week. All D-1’s, sluffy or very shallow slabs, but widespread on N-E aspects in steeper windloaded areas.

Scarps Ridge

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2016
Name: JSJ
Subject: Scarps Ridge
Aspect: South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 11,900-12,400

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear, Calm with a strong valley temp inversion.
Snowpack: No instabilities noted throughout the tour. Persistent slab structure noted on all slopes and at all elevations with varying thickness of slab, with overall HS in this alpine zone generally >1.25M. Fresh cracks noted on one slope (~35*) NTL facing SW from the previous day’s snowmobile traffic, but the compressive support seemed to hold it in place. Rapid settlement from Xmas storm snow continues, and on steep Southerly aspects (>40*) many trigger points / shallow spots in the slab seem easy to hit now again. Pronounced Surface Hoar found from about 10,500’ down to valley floor.

Crested Butte Area

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2016
Name: Donny
Subject: Crested Butte Area
Aspect: South West
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather: 10:15 @ 9000’ Partly Cloudy, Calm and too cold to take a temp; 3mm SH; top 20cm of snow gone to facets; HS: 80cm; BootPen: 10cm SkiPen: 60cm
11:00 @ 9,500’ Partly Cloudy, Calm and -8ºC; SH; HS: 60cm; SkiPen: 5cm BootPen: 60cm
13:00 @ 10,600 Overcast with high, thin clouds, Calm and 1.5ºC; HS:70cm; SkiPen: 10cm BootPen: 70cm
Snowpack: Many, large whumpfs in low-angle terrain below 11,000’. Average snow depth was between 60 and 80 cm. This southwest aspect was a facet-sandwich, with about 30cm of basel facets and 20cm of NSF surrounding a 1F- “slab” in the mid-pack. We skied a 35º slope and had no signs of instabilities.