Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic
Date of Observation: 11/23/2020
Name: billy barr
Subject: Gothic 7 a.m.
Aspect:
Elevation:
Avalanches:
Weather: Cloudy, calm and warm overnight with very light snow, mostly between 10 p.m. and midnight but occasional flakes at timed. New snow ½” with just 0.02″ of water and the snow pack is at 7″. Currently overcast and calm and basically not snowing but an occasion flake comes at times. The overnight low is the current 26ºF. billy
Snowpack:
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Upper Crystal Watershed
Date of Observation: 11/21/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Surprisingly Good Warm Cream.
Aspect: West, North West
Elevation: 11,000-12,000
Weather: Mostly cloudy becoming partly cloudy in the evening. Calm winds observed, with some snow blowing off the high peaks.
Snowpack: Short late afternoon tour. ~10-12cm of new snow sitting on a mixed bag of old snow surfaces. No concerns were found, so no detailed observations were necessary. The combination of the last major wind event, plus the recent thick snow, made for some surprisingly good ski conditions. Ski pen averaged 10-20cm. Traveled on WNW facing slopes between 11,000-12,000ft.
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Cinnamon
Date of Observation: 11/19/2020
Name: Alan bernholtz
Subject: Cinnamon East Face
Aspect: East
Elevation: 12,000′
Avalanches:Â Non observed
Weather: Partly cloudy skies, moderate west winds with temps around freezing
Snowpack: A wide variety of surface conditions in addition to a variable snowpack depth was observed. We found wind deposited snow on the surface as well as some D/F grains. The surface of the snow was moist in wind protected areas. There was very little blowing snow on the ridge tops. There was some wind crusts, some sun crusts and some facetted snow that we observed on our ski up and down.
The snowpack varied from 50cm to ground. No signs of instability were observed even on 40 degree pitches.
The road up had wind drifts but was easily manageable on snowmobiles.
Photos:
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Washington Gulch
Date of Observation: 11/14/2020
Name: Cam S
Subject: Hiding from the Wind
Aspect: North East
Elevation: Below Treeline
Avalanches:
None observed
Weather: Winds were howling down the valley but nice and calm in the trees. Snowfall stopped by morning but the winds kept up all day long. This is probably news to no one…
Snowpack: Consistently about 50cm HS on low elevation densely treed slopes. As far as I could tell the snow on the ground was all from the previous 7 days. No signs of instability observed.
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location:
Date of Observation: 11/15/2020
Name: Cam S
Subject: Kebler Area Sunday
Aspect: North, North East, North West
Elevation: BTL to NTL
Avalanches:
None observed
Weather: Overcast above the CB mtns all morning. You could peek at some sunshine over Paonia and Gunnison areas. Warm for a November morning. Welcome calm winds after the blustery start to the weekend.
Snowpack: Open slopes had an obvious stiff layer on the surface from Saturday’s winds. I would guess anywhere from 1-4 inches thick. Snow depth was generally 50cm to 100 in isolated freshly wind drifted areas. No signs of instability or avalanches observed EXCEPT some cracking and shlumping whole cutting a steep drifted rollover & a large whoomph on a well established skintrack we had already been traveling on all morning. The whoomph occurred in a shallower N facing area, about 50cm HS, at 11,000 ft. It felt like there was faceted October snow at the ground while probing around with a pole in that spot.
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Schofield Pass / Elko Park – Parked at Rock Slabs before Emerald Lake gorge. Skied Schofield Pass road into Elko Park.
Date of Observation: 11/13/2020
Name: Ben Pritchett
Subject: Schofield Pass walkabout
Aspect: North West
Elevation: Near Treeline
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 5-10 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
Wind Loading: None
Temperature: 30 F
Sky Cover: Overcast
Depth of Total Snow: 50 cm
Weather Description: Light snow showers in morning with only a trace of accumulation. The sun returned in the afternoon under partly cloudy skies. Light winds with no transport seen at ridgetops.
Snowpack: Snowpack Description: Went looking at northwest-facing terrain to see if it will be problematic with the next storm. Found many alpine northwest facing slopes wind-scoured back to rock. But near and below treeline I found a layer of weak faceted snow near the ground, similar to what’s present on north and northeast facing terrain. The biggest difference is that on some slopes there’s also a thin melt-freeze crust above the faceted snow that’s worth keeping an eye on as slabs develop this winter. The snowpack on east to south to west facing terrain remains dense, rounded, and supportive to a skier’s weight.
Photos:
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Anthracites
Date of Observation: 11/13/2020
Name: Ben Pritchett
Subject: Photos from Kebler Pass road.
Aspect: North West
Elevation: Near Treeline
Snowpack: Fairly consistent coverage without dramatic wind scouring.
Photos:
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Gothic Campground
Date of Observation: 11/09/2020
Name: steve banks
Subject: Gothic 11/9
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,500
Avalanches:
none
Weather: Temps in the 20’s with intermittent down valley winds. Snowfall ranged from S-1 to S2 with an additional 1.5 inches of accumulation from noon to 3 pm
Snowpack: 8-10″ total snowpack. We did see cracking and some slumping of the very new snow which was surprising given the F to F+ hardness of the snowpack. Snow at the ground was moist and easily created snowballs.
Photos:
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys
Date of Observation: 11/10/2020
Name: Lawson yow
Subject: pow on facets
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,000
Avalanches:
Not really. Was able to stomp on some baby cornices and get some small cracks.
Weather: Pretty cold, medium windy.
Snowpack: between 6-12 inches fresh, soft snow on top of .25-1″ of facets. Top layer not very cohesive, didnt propagate long cracks.
Dug a sloppy ECT, sheered cleanly when i shovel pulled it. Collapsed itself when i hammer tapped it. ECT 20something.
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Drove to the Rock Slabs parking lot just before Emerald Lake in Gothic Valley. In Slate drove to Pittsburg.
Date of Observation: 11/08/2020
Name: Ben Pritchett
Subject: Roadside drive up Gothic and Slate River
Aspect:
Elevation:
Avalanches:Â Saw one relatively thin slab avalanche in extreme / cliffy terrain in the north bowl on Gothic Mountain.
Date Location/Path # Elev Asp Type Trig SizeR SizeD
View 2020/11/08 †Gothic 1 >TL N SS N R1 D2
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 10-20 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: SW
Wind Loading: Moderate
Temperature: 25 F
Sky Cover: Overcast
Depth of New Snow: 20 cm
Depth of Total Snow: 20 cm
Weather Description: Snowing at sunrise, skies broke through AM hours, then clouds increased and cloud bottoms dropped to near peak height through the early afternoon. Snowfall began again around 3-4pm.
Snowpack: Snowpack Description: Snow depth in the valley bottom near Crested Butte was around 3-5″, nearing a foot as we approached Schofield Pass and Pittsburg. Second hand report of 12″ in the townsite of Irwin measured by a reliable observer.
Forecast BC Danger Level: Moderate
Observed BC Danger Level: Low in the majority of the terrain seen. Mostly ice and a bit of new snow on dirt.
Changes that would raise danger to high: 2+” SWE
Photos:
