AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: Clear, high temps at 12k 38 and 10K 50 degrees. Mostly light westerly winds through the day that where increasing to moderate around 2pm. clouds started to increase to “few” around 3pm.

SNOWPACK: Todays observations where based in the same terrain as yesterdays observations, and are highlighting the differences between the two days. Recent storm snow has seen more settlement and was much less reactive today in the form of wet loose avalanches, compared to yesterday. I didn’t notice any more natural lose wet avalanche activity in the Ruby Range on East to South facing terrain, though the possibility of skier triggering may have remained. On the terrain we skied at NTL/BTL elevations, skier triggering a loose wet avalanche had become much more stubborn then yesterday, though we continued to seek colder snow and changed aspects throughout the day as the snow heated up.

The old snow surface below last weeks storm snow remained frozen in the form of thick crusts 20-45cm thick in the terrain observed. So we where only worried about loose wet avalanches and still need more time at these warm temperatures to see melt water penetrating deeper into the snowpack and to start worrying about wet slabs.

UPLOADS:

WEATHER: Light to Moderate westerly winds at ridge line. Clear sky. High temps of 37 at 12k and 47 at 10k.

SNOWPACK: The recent storm snow became moist or wet down to the 3/23 Interface on all terrain. A few quick pits throughout the day found frozen snow below the 3/23 Interface with moist grains below this very thick crust ~25cms. Skier triggered loose wet avalanches where very likely at 12:00pm on East and 2:00 pm on West.

Above treeline in the Ruby range loose wet avalanche where having a party. These avalanches where running on south east an south aspects in the areas we could see and where all in the D1 to D1.5 range. While relatively small, they would have wrecked your world if you got hit and tumbled by one. Something else of note, all this loose wet activity was starting from rock outcrops and slopes without big rock outcrops haven’t shed yet.

UPLOADS:

IMG_0507

IMG_0506

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER: Mostly sunny, calm, warm

SNOWPACK: Two snow courses: Bottom of Red Lady Glades (Keystone) and the other by Mike’s Mile (Crested Butte).

Hard rain crust found at both courses 4 inches below the surface. Felt like an ice lens trying to take snow cores.
Depth of snow ranged between 24 and 35 inches on average. A few spots protected by tree cover were between 7 and 12 inches.
Red Lady Glade Course appears to be much warmer as soil plugs were wet and loose.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: plenty of wet slide activity that looked to be two days old on s/sw faces in lower part of red well

WEATHER: sunny, warm, light winds up high 10mph range

SNOWPACK: Boot top goodness north face above treeline, boot top with crust underneath in wrong.

AVALANCHES:

WEATHER:

SNOWPACK: No signs of instability today except a few rollerballs on steep southerly aspects ATL. Windslabs trending toward unreactive…kicked around on a few pockets and couldn’t get any to budge. On north aspects above treeline, the recent snow (~6″) landed on 1mm near surface facets; that seems were you could trigger a windslab if you found one, but most of these slopes were scoured back by NW to N winds in the past 2 days. Surfaces became wet to moist on SE to S to SW aspects near/above treeline today, with moisture down to the old 3/24 crust interface.
Several profiles on the north face of Crystal Peak (ATL) in areas that didn’t avalanche during early March cycle still showing persistent slab structure, with 60-90 cm of 1F slab over Feb facet layer, ranging from 1.5mm to 3mm in size, generally 4F to F hard. Mixed results from ECTX to ECTP, seemed most concerning in areas with shallower snow depth.

UPLOADS:

AVALANCHES: Several natural point release avalanches and one soft slab observed in the Ruby Range on south and east aspects above treeline. Didn’t get a good chance to see these avalanches before they where hidden in the shade, but they all appeared to be in the D1 to D1.5 range.

WEATHER: Heavy snowfall and near whiteout conditions Wednesday morning with about 4″ of new snow in an hour or two. Sky became partly cloudy by 1pm with strong solar at times.

SNOWPACK: Irwin storm totals where about 14” on the storm board Wednesday morning, from Monday nights to Wednesday mornings snowfall. Wind patterns where poor for creating windslabs in the area and otherwise the new snow was holding up well on the old snow interface. Snow surfaces became moist on east, south and west when the sun came out mid day.

UPLOADS: