Name: Zach Guy
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/11/2015
Aspect: South, North West
Elevation: 11,000 to 13,000 ft.

Avalanches: Touchy windslabs in crossloaded gullies, 4-8″ thick, a few up to 10″ thick. We skier triggered over a dozen soft slabs, running on meltfreeze crusts on southerly aspects and windhardened surfaces on northerly aspects. They weren’t running far or propagating wide distances, but they were increasing in size through the day. SS-ASc-R1-D1-I

Weather: Moderate snowfall, light to moderate westerly winds, some variable directions as we moved through terrain. Overcast.

Snowpack: About 6″ of new snow on the firm interfaces left over from our recent dryspell, up to 10 or 12″ in drifted gullies. New snow is bonding poorly to the Jan 10th interface.

Name: ADB
Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/11/2015
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Weather: Mostly cloudy and snowing lightly (S-1). Sun poked out a few times. Winds were calm for the most part except one 10 minute episode of light winds, which didn’t transport snow.

Snowpack: Didn’t see the surface hoar observed on 1/10/15. Less than 2.5 cm of new snow on the ground.

Uploads:

Name: Zach Guy
Title: Slate River Valley and Poverty Gulch
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2015
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: up to 12,500 ft.

Avalanches: Same wet loose cycle here from several days ago, mostly N/BTL on southern half, some cleaning out to the ground. One recent skier triggered persistent slab in the lower rollers of eastern part of Schuykill, NE aspect BTL. Triggered sometime in the last 4 days, looked to be 2 feet deep and 150 feet wide. It was on a relatively small terrain feature thus small in size. SS-AS-R2-D1.5-O. Lots of similar naturals in the same area that were quite a bit older. Also saw a handful of old, persistent slab avalanches on Northwest aspects above treeline on the windward side of Ruby Divide.

Weather: Light westerly winds. Clear. Warm.

Snowpack: Observed the current dry-spell interface on ATL slopes. Roughly half of terrain has ripples and scallops from wind affects, the other half is smooth. SE to S to SW has undergone a few days of melt-freeze cycles but preserved the older wind texture, and a fair amount of steep terrain has rollerballs. Meltfreeze crusts were thin to 2″ thick. About 10% of terrain has small surface hoar, generally in sheltered, shaded pockets, sitting on smooth windcrusts. Swaths of soft, rippeled near surface facets exist between firm wind board and wind crusts. Without a map of micro terrain wind affects, its pretty difficult to generalize a pattern for PWL and non-PWL distribution, and will make for challenging slope to slope comparisons if this interface becomes problematic. Looks alot like our late January interface last year.

Uploads:

Name: Evan Ross
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2015
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 11,00-12,800 ATL

Weather: Clear sky in our area. Clouds were draped over the Ruby Range and upper Slate River Valley for most of the day. Calm wind.

Snowpack: Lots of surface hoar on east and southeast aspects above treeline. It was everywhere in starting zones. On south aspects it was either laying flat or melted back into the sun crust. Otherwise snow surfaces are variably with near surface facets, wind texture, wind board, Sastrugi and sun crusts. Persistent Slab structure was obvious on easterly terrain while probing or in quick snowpits, though it was unreactive today. Only traveled on a few south facing slopes and this structure was variable. South facing slopes that have seen pervious wind loading were the areas that you could more reliably find a persistent slab.

Surface Hoar in one of many east facing starting zones on MT Baldy.

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2015
Weather: Sunny, blue skies, and very warm. No wind.
Snowpack: BTL-Large surface hoar forming (5 to 7.5 cm). Observed several rollers on southerly aspects.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2015
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Weather: Sunny, very warm, and no wind

Snowpack: BTL and NTL-Surface hoar on all aspects up to 2.5 cm. Observed one SS-D0.5 on road cut. slab was 18 inches deep and failed on facets. Didn’t see a post on observations and didn’t see a ski cut on the slope. This failure was on one of the road cuts.

Uploads:

Name: Ian Havlick
Title: Spring Creek, Taylor Canyon
Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2015
Aspect: North, South, North West
Elevation: 8500-9500

Avalanches: Size 1 Wet loose avalanches scouring to ground from rapid warm up a few days ago, even on NW facing slopes. Steep, but northerly. Would not have buried a person, but could have caused injury if in wrong place at wrong time.

Weather: Partly cloudy, mild, no wind

Snowpack: Shallow snowpack, less than 45cm deep, all facets. no sign of significant wind loading. slight temperature/suncrust, with 3-4mm surface hoar above. No pits or stability tests performed.

Uploads:

Name: Irwin Guides (CBMG)
Title: Washington Gulch/Conies
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2015
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9400-11600

Weather: WEATHER: Clear, Light West wind on ridge, no temps observed.

Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Large surface hoar on top of facets, with a thin, supporting mid-pack, over basal facets. Significant whumpfing in valley bottom; but no signs of instabilities observed on slopes up to 35º.