Name: Zach Guy
Title: Coney’s
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/25/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Avalanches: Observed 3 or 4 recent avalanches running on the facet layer on North or Northeast aspects below treeline. About a foot deep, failing full width of their small paths, but small in destructive size (D1 to 1.5’s).

Weather: Surprisingly calm winds. No snow transport observed off of high peaks. Generally broken skies. Periods of heavy snow (S3 +) with lulls between snow pulses. About 5 or 6″ of new snow accumulated through the day.

Snowpack: New snow fell very low density and unaffected by wind. About 12-18″ of recent soft slab (fist + to 4F) over the Dec 13th facet layer, which is basically a faceted conglomerate of all snow prior to Dec 13th to the ground. Lots of collapsing when traveling low angle terrain, and a NE facing slope fractured wall to wall but didn’t slide…just spiderweb cracks down to the facet layer.

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Name: Alex
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/25/2014
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: +/-11,000′

Weather: At noon at the Antracites snowmobile parking area it was snowing heavily with moderate winds from the southwest with about 20 cms new snow. Boot pen was about 40 cms, and the air temp was 15* F. As we skinned up, the snow came and went in squalls. At the top of the skin track the sky cleared a bit, We found 20 cms new snow at the top of short north and northeast facing runs, with a snow depth of +/-160 cms. The Dec. 21-22nd storm’s snow has become a slab under today’s new snow. We skied slopes up to 35* and had no collapses, cracking, or major sloughing. It was snowing heavily again when we left around 4 pm, but skies cleared as we came through the Y and towards CB on Kebler Pass.

Location: Snodgrass
Date of Observation: 12/25/2014
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 10,400 to 11,000

Avalanches: None observed. No cracking or whomping on ski track.

Weather: Beginning of tour, winds were calm and continuus snowfall less than 2cm/hour. Visibility was great and air temperatures were warm for this time of year. Late morning, weather abruptly changed to strong winds from the west with sideways snow falling. Snow fall rates increased significantly. Air temperatures dropped too.

Snowpack: Four to six inches of new snow had fallen over night with pockets of eight inches in open areas. Ski pole tests revealed upper 18 inches of snow with F and 4F hardness overlying a crust.

Avalanches: Noticed an avalanche on the far skiers left side of Red Lady Bowl.

Weather: Breezy but winds calming by 9 a.m. from the overnight blast

Snowpack: Plenty of collapsing while touring up Snodgrass. Thick wind layer on top. Ski pen anywhere from 10 to 20 inches when breaking trail.

Avalanches: Most of the range was obscured by clouds, but caught a few looks at some recent soft slab avalanches on north, east, and south aspects, mostly D2 or D2.5 in size.

• 3 or 4 large debris piles in Peeler Basin off of north aspects, looked D2 to D2.5, but crowns had already been filled in.. Likely ran mid-storm.
• Two slides on east aspects of Ruby and Robinson Basin, looked to have run in the past 12-24 hours. The slide on Ruby looked 3 to 5 feet deep, 300-400 feet wide. SS-N-R2-D2.5-U.
• One slide on a south aspect of Robinson Basin, several feet deep, a couple hundred feet wide, fairly recent. SS-N-R3-D2-U
• Large D2.5ish looking debris pile below E/NE face of Mt. Owen. Peak and crownline were obscured

Weather: Cold. Moderate gusts from the north with short periods of moderate transport. Broken skies.

Uploads:

Name: Phil Bohannon
Title: Point Releases off of Coal Creek
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/22/2014
Aspect: North
Elevation: 9000′

Avalanches: Two natural point releases. Nothing major but interesting.

Weather: Snowing moderately. Winds gusty out of NW.

Snowpack: No pit test. Just Avalanche observation.

Uploads:

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