Name: Matt Zia
Title: Snodgrass pits
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/07/2015
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9600

Avalanches: Observed natural avalanche activity across the valley on the S Face of Avery Peak (~10,000 feet and maybe 40º slope?) as well as on W facing slopes further south (approximately same elevation and angle as Avery) . Too far to really see, but appeared to be loose wet snow, no noticeable crown or slab fracturing.

Weather: Clear skies, no wind, ~40ºF in the sun, 30ºF in shade

Snowpack: Approximately 20º slope, NE facing at 9600 feet. Small meadow just off the Snodgrass road and above a large rollover.

0-5cm: Surface hoar, approx. 2.5mm grain size, F hardness, some rollerballs from digging a pit
5-50cm: consolidated slab, 4F-1F hardness
50-55cm: December 13th weak layer, 1-2mm facets
55-90cm: 1F hardness
90-95cm (ground): F hardness, facets and depth hoar

Conducted two compression tests, both failed at December 13th layer. First: CT22-SC-Q1. Second: CT21-SC-Q1. Top 10cm of snow easily disintegrated under shovel blade.

Crossed paths with another party who dug a pit higher up on a steeper slope of 35º. They found a similar snowpack in terms of depth, but compression test yielded a result of CT7. Additionally, on the steeper terrain, the top 10cm which disintegrated on a 20º slope instead slide as its own slab before the thicker slab reacted on the December 13th interface.

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Name: Zach Guy
Title: Natural slides
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/06/2015
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: Near and above treeline

Avalanches: 2 Natural windslabs in the past couple days, one off of the east face of Owen, one off of a Northeast couloir on Scarp’s Ridge, ATL slopes. Both looked to be about a foot deep, relatively small, less than 40 feet wide. (SS-N-R1-D1-I).  Over a dozen wet loose avalanches on south aspects near treeline in Peeler and Robinson Basin, D1 to D1.5 in size.  Some of these showed some horizontal propagation as they ran.  WL-N-R1-D1/1.5-S.   One wet loose triggered a larger slab, estimated about 2 feet deep on the Dec 13th crust.  SS-NL-R2-D2-O.

Weather: Light westerly winds. WARM. High of 40F at 10,000 ft. Few clouds.

Snowpack: New surface hoar layer, preserved on low angle slopes that didn’t get cooked by the sun. Snowpack became moist with lots of rollerballs on SE to S to W aspects on near treeline slopes, and S aspects above treeline.

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Title: Avalanches on Snodgrass
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/06/2015
Aspect: South East
Elevation: ~11,000 ft

Avalanches: 2 minor slides on the Southeast Aspect (California Bowl) of Snodgrass. Nobody was hurt.

Weather: Warm and sunny

Snowpack: Heavy and wet

Name: Travis Colbert
Title: Lower Wolverine Basin
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/06/2015
Aspect: North West
Elevation: 10,600

Avalanches:

Weather: Warm (30 degrees), low cloud layer in the Slate River valley, clear blue skies above. Calm winds.

Snowpack: Test pit on a 38 degree rocky rollover. 110 cm total snow depth. 52 cm of fist to four finger soft snow on top of “December 13th interface” of 1-2 mm facets. 20-30 cm of two and three finger hardness below December 13th interface sitting on 10 cm of 2-3 mm facets at the ground. Conducted several shovel compression test with widely mixed results from CT7 with a sudden collapse on the December 13th interface to CT30 that shovel sheared at the ground. One of the columns failed when cutting on the December 13th interface. Rock outcroppings in the vicinity of the test pit seemed to be contributing to the widely varied results. Bottom line, while much of the snowpack might be “MODERATE”, there seems to be plenty of sensitive pockets that can be easily triggered by the weight of a skier.

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Name: Evan Ross
Date: 1/16/15
Location: Snodgrass Road
Aspect: NE

Weather: Low clouds and overcast this morning. Burning off by 11am to few clouds. Much warmer then that past week.

Snowpack/Avalanche Obs: Passing by NE side of snodgrass on the Gothic road.  Certainly a widespread Persistent Slab cycle on the mid and upper slopes of Snodgrass. Classic avalanche terrain generally over 34 degrees was a main characteristic. Lots of wind effect in the east river valley. Looked like more wind stripping then wind loading, but obviously there were some cross loaded pockets too. Lots of loosing snow avalanching on sunny slopes but all d1-d1.5.

Name: Zach Guy/Evan Ross
Title: Schuykill Ridge
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/05/2015
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,100-11,300

Weather: Broken skies becoming scattered to few  in the late afternoon. Moderate to strong W/SW winds at ridgelines blowing snow. In valley bottoms light to moderate winds were also drifting snow.

Snowpack: Toured in the Schuykill area observing the persistent slab structure through different elevation bands:

Below 9,600ft
Persistent slab structure was very weak with a faceting slab. A few collapses but no shooting cracks. ECT results were non-propagating slab fractures (ECTN, moderate to hard). Areas with previously wind hardened snow were most suspect.

9,600ft to 10,000ft
The slab gained enough strength or cohesion (F+ to 4F, 60 cm thick) to produce a shooting crack on a 33 degree slope after a collapse.

10,000-11,300
Persistent Slabs became quite with no collapsing. HS averaged 100-140cm, slabs about 70+ cm thick. The 12/13 interface was obvious in the snowpit wall and still very weak facets, but ECT tests did not produce any results (ECTX), Compression tests produced sudden collapse results on the 12/13 facets.

Avalanches: Shallow windslabs were touchy at ridgeline on Northeast aspects near treeline. Two skier triggered windslabs generally 2-4″ deep but up to 6″ in places. 30-40ft wide and one ran 500 vertical feet but was still a D1. We watched a natural avalanche mid day on  a NE aspect near treeline. Appeared to be a shallow windslab that then stepped down to a 100 ft wide persistent slab, maybe a foot or two deep, but we observed this from valley bottom.  The whole mess ran 1,000 vertical feet and was large enough to bury a person.  SS-N-R1-D1.5-O.  That slope had slid previously on the Dec 13th facets in mid-December.   Lots of evidence of widespread avalanches during the meat of the avalanche cycle back in late December.

Name: Dustin
Title: Poverty Gulch 1-5-15
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/05/2015
Aspect: North, East
Elevation: 9500-10500

Avalanches: Triggered multiple wind slabs (all D1) while riding and one snowmobiling. The first was triggered on a small cross-loaded convexity on the bench. It was only 2-3 inches deep, seemed to be windblown snow from today. The slab didn’t have enough weight to run more than a few feet downhill, but for how small it was it propagated around 10ft. Our party triggered another, seemingly identical slide on a similar slope lower down. The third was triggered below a leeward ridge and was a little bigger (3-5 inches and 15 ft) but also didn’t run on the relatively shallow slope (25-30 degrees). The final slide was triggered on a small E-aspect on the valley floor that received tremendous wind loading. The slide was triggered from a convexity/windlip and was between 5-15 inches deep across the crown. The slide ran on a Q1 surface, beautifully planar but I couldn’t identify the weak layer between that and the stiff wind slab that was the bed surface. Sun crust or surface hoar? All R1-D1- AS-SS except the snowmobile trigger.

Weather: Windy! Clouds were in and out throughout the day but never had full sky coverage. Strong winds from the West and Northwest that were heavily loading slopes frequently throughout the day. Pretty warm besides the wind.

Snowpack: Less supportive in lower elevations and less wind affected areas. More snow up high. Dug on a small test slope on the bench below the N-face of Schuylkill false summit, seemed to receive a good bit of wind loading. Was more than 5 ft and didn,t touch the ground. Around 1-2 ft of softer snow (f and 4f) on top of a stiffer slab (1f). I imagine that this is the slab from the Dec. 22nd storm. Underneath the Dec. 22 slab was softer faceted snow, but seemed somewhat cohesive as well.

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