Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 04/12/2020
Name: Lawson
Subject: Baxter basin obs
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 12k
Avalanches:

seen from across valley. happened in between laps, must have been around noon.
see photos in email.

Weather: windy as. snownados all over. Could see heavy snow transport on all the ridge and mtn tops.
broken clouds

Snowpack: 3-4 inches new snow on top of variable crust. some refrozen wet slide debris, some firm ice, some soft crust.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/12/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Red Lady Bowl
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9-12000

Avalanches: Possibly one new D1.5 out of 3rd bowl Axtell but marginal visibility prevented confirmation. If it was a fresh slide, it failed as a windslab in this morning’s new snow on leeward SE facing slopes 11,500-12,000. no other reactive slabbiness in new, wind drifted snow in bowl proper or subsequent lower elevation rollers. Maybe early this morning while still cold but radiation and warming has glued new snow and moistened on all aspects and shady areas in terrain traveled.

Weather: scattered clouds, intermittent flurries 10:30-12:30, but bulk of cloudiness staying to west/NW of CB. Moderate westerly wind gusts transporting good amount of snow above treeline.

Snowpack: 6-16″ new snow depending on leeward or windward terrain. The snow seemed to fall right side up and moist, preventing too much transport. Windslabs were growing, but unreactive in terrain traveled midday. New snow was close to rollerball on steeper terrain and may see wet concerns later with more concentrated radiation. Lower elevations became much stickier and wetter than alpine.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 04/12/2020
Name: Billy
Subject: Gothic AM snow

Weather: Cloudy and mild with snow starting just after midnight, light to moderate overnight with 5″ new and water 0.35″. Little wind during the night but it has started gusting now with 1-4 W but gusts 10 to 15. Overcast with the temp. range from 26 to 29 and 26F now. Snowpack at 39½” after being at 35½” at sunset. New snow is sitting on a hard crust. Last weeks high temp. average was 50ºF so a delightful week. Finally. billy

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 04/12/2020
Name: Cosmo
Subject: Cement Creek
Elevation: 9300′

Weather: 30 degrees out this morning. 3.5″ of new snow @ 6:30am.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/11/2020
Name: ADB
Subject: Axtell-AM
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: ATL, BTL, NTL

Avalanches: none this morning

Weather: few clouds and light breeze maintaining cooler temperatures throughout the elevation bands and all aspects between 745-1130.

Snowpack: snow was very supportive throughout elevation bands and aspects. snow did not corn up when we dropped in to the hanging bowl between Wang Chung and bowls above Green Lake. Snow facing south of ridge line between Green Lake Drainage and the main Axtell cirque was quite soft and the only soft penetratable snow. Snow was edgable in main bowl we skied on all aspects and almost corn on SE aspects. Snow in cirque below main Axtell bowls was firm but edgable. We saw snowmobiles in both drainages and the snow mobiles didn’t create ruts or penetrate the snow surface.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/10/2020
Subject: Cornice Fall Redwell

Avalanches:
There I was, standing on a rock with my wife. We heard thunder…. I grabbed my camera phone, then looked to the sky. It was blue.
Then I looked into Redwell Basin and saw a large cornice had just fallen. P

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 04/10/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Afternoon near treeline wet snow
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9400′ – 11600′

Avalanches: Lots of recent wet avalanche activity around the range. Rustlers Gulch area produced a number of Wet Slab’s the failed in the past couple of days on south and southwest aspects around 12,000′. A couple avalanches were D2 in size.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies in the afternoon with light winds. Felt slightly cooler than the previous day with cloud cover and light winds.

Snowpack: Targeted near treeline slopes that faced northeast, east, and southeast. Moved through terrain between 245pm and 500pm which was a bit too late for peak melt. All sites had developed thin crusts at the surface since the sun had transitioned westward.

On southeast slope at 11,500′ found HS around 150cm with water pooling at the first crust about 40cm down, ECTP 26 beneath the crust with water pooling and above a second crust just a few inches deeper. Another prominent crust was present 50cm above ground with weak, moist 4f snow at the ground. Did not find any ice lens’ lower in profile. Snowpack structure appeared to fit with observed Wet Slab avalanche activity on similar aspects in Rustlers Gulch from the past couple of days.

On an east-facing slope at 11,500′ with HS of 175cm found water pooling on a crust 50cm from the surface. ECTP 21 on the crust with pooled water. Liquid water had just barely pushed beneath this upper crust. Slab structure in the midpack is dense, pencil hard snow.

Shifted to a northeast slope with an HS of 185cm at 11,600′ and found wet snow in just the top few inches of the snowpack. The mid-march interface, 50cm down, was dry on my test wall, but a small portion of the observation wall had an ice lens, but the entire layer had not wetted. I followed ice columns from the surface down and most did not make it to that interface and stopped 10cm short. No results in stability test, ECTX.

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 04/09/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Teocalli
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 8500-13000

Avalanches: Observed a variety of wet loose and some gouging and developing wet slab activity, all looked to have run Tuesday or Wednesday during peak warming. Avalanches observed ranged from pushy D1 to D2, but all would have been ugly and dangerous if involved. The most impressive activity was on mid elevation, near treeline to above treeline, east and west-facing terrain, all initiated as wet loose and as they ran, entrained deeper weak layers, some which propagated as slabs. Shallow, rocky terrain most punchy and suspect with wet slab structure and failing easily in hand shears on old, 4-6mm moist depth hoar.

Weather: Clear skies overnight with some thin cirrus moving in mid morning. Temperatures were pretty obviously inverted with lows in the low 20s in valley bottoms, and mid to upper 20s above 11,000ft it seemed. Left the field 12:00.

Snowpack: Snowpack is hanging in there with overnight refreezes to provide safe travel until about 12, past that, ski and snowmobile travel grows more difficult in the shallower parts of forecast area, Brush Creek with tracks augering and skis punching. HS ranged 30-80cm in terrain traveled. Overnight refreeze 2-6″ deep, with still dry winter-like snow deeper in the snowpack. Areas shallower than 40-60cm are isothermal in full meltdown. Got some major collapses both on still frozen uptrack, and on descent, which must have been big to notice on south-facing descent!

Photos: