Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/07/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Afternoon Wet Check
Aspect: North East, South, West
Elevation: 9,200-12,000

Avalanches: A few more Cornices Falls observed and natural wet loose avalanches.

Weather: Another Beautiful day. Mostly Clear Sky and light winds at the elevations traveled.

Snowpack: Attempted to stay fairly close to the Kebler TH and low in elevations to check on the wet snow bits. The snowpack stayed supportable for the most part with spotty punching through the snowpack. The upper snowpack was wet, or it was wet to the ground on some southerly facing slopes, and a small loose wet avalanche problem developed around the compass. You would need a steep slope to get one of those loose wets moving. In the morning all of those aspects would have been crusty and this wasn’t the first time this upper snowpack had gotten wet. I didn’t observe any collapses in the snowpack.

Targeted a couple NE facing slopes to see how water was moving through the snowpack and to add more data into other recent data on those aspects. My hunt for something concerning didn’t materialize on slopes below 10,000ft. It doesn’t mean the problem isn’t out there, but I didn’t find it. The wetting front on all slopes near and above 35 degrees was in the upper 20cm’s of the snowpack. I found some ice lenses down to ~20cm, but the general wet snow was in the upper 10cm of the snowpack with some moist snow below, before eventually becoming mostly dry. No CT results on the upper 60cm of snowpack in those test pits.

Location: Crested Butte Backcountry
Date of Observation: 04/07/2020
Name: Zach Kinler
Aspect: North East, South West, West
Avalanches:

D2 slab avalanche NE 11,800′ Peeler, likely 4/6
Large debris pile in runout on west side of Gothic. First observed afternoon 4/7.
Smaller wet avalanche on a southerly slope above Pittsburg. Long-distance picture and details are uncertain.
Wet Loose activity off of Purple Ridge SW 10,800′

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 04/06/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Upper Brush Creek
Aspect: North, East, South, West
Elevation: 9,000-13,300

Weather: Beautiful day. Some portions of the day had calm winds, while other times the southwest gusts were strong. Felt like a general breezy spring day.

Snowpack: Low elevations had a sold freeze overnight with strong crusts. Chainsawing snowmobiles to cool them down, just kicked up dry facets and melt forms after the track made it through the upper thick crusts. That same snowpack after 4pm was wet and punchy.

We spend most of the day above 12,400ft. Southerly facing slopes had very thin soft crusts in the morning over a dry snowpack. Those snow surfaces were soft and warm in the afternoon but didn’t have a wet loose avalanche issue. Northerly facing slopes were either settled good pow, or had some form of wind effect. I was blown away by how consolidated some of that chalky pow was on steep rocky faces, versus the normal weak sugar around rocks. Other than potential cornice hazard, we found normal caution and stable snow.

Heading home in the late afternoon we found small wet avalanche concerns on the east and south slopes traveled below 12,000ft.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/06/2020
Name: Zach Kinler
Aspect: North, North East, East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,800-11,000′
Avalanches:

Several Wet Loose on steep southerlies near treeline on Red Rock Ridge.
D2 Cornice triggered slab avalanche off Scarp Ridge above Peeler Basin
D1.5 Cornice triggered slab avalanche immediately adjacent to above avalanche.

Weather: Beautiful day with lots of sun. Temps were well above freezing. SW winds felt nice in open areas while sheltered slopes felt the warmest of the year.

Snowpack: Began the tour on E aspects around 12:00 with lots of collapsing and cracking around skis. Quick upper snowpack pit at 9,800′ revealed CT13 SC results beneath a moist crust around 25 cm deep. Moving to a NE aspect at 10,000, free water had made it to a crust/facet combo around 30cm deep with ECTP7 results. On a N aspect at 10,000′ no free water was present but easy hand shears revealed 1 mm facets around 35 cm deep. Lower elevations may be seeing water at this interface if not soon. Moving around S towards W aspects in the afternoon and a similar structure as the E aspect was encountered with moist yet somewhat supportive melt forms forming a slab-like structure over very weak and moist facets below. Cracking and collapsing of up to 30′ was observed on slopes up to 30 degrees as well as ECTP11 and ECTP12 results on W aspect at 11K. Several inches of wet surface snow was present E-S-W aspects with Wet Loose avalanches possible on slopes greater than 35 degrees. Overall structure in this zone at these elevations was poor with slabs over very large and weak grains.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/05/2020
Name: Eric Murrow and Zach Kinler
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,000′-12,000′

Avalanches:
Gibson Ridge ENE 9,700 D1.5 Wet Loose gouging to ground in shallow snowpack
Ohio Peak ENE 12,000′ D2 Cornice fall triggered smaller slab below the ridgeline pulling out another small but deeper slab around cliffs.
Axtel ENE 11,800 D1 Wet Loose
Ruby Peak SE 12,400 Cornice fall entrained surface snow, no slab triggered
Elk Basin SE 11,700 D1 Numerous Wet Loose running from rocky features today or yesterday

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies through midday gave way to Partly Cloudy skies in the afternoon. Warming trend continued although clouds and continued SW winds maintained a cool feel near and above tree line. Freezing level rose above 11K.

Snowpack: Spent the morning on the southern half of the compass near and above tree line monitoring snow surfaces for warming. Moderate SW winds and cloud cover combined to keep surfaces cool where small amounts of dry snow was observed drifting at 12,000′. Similar elevations in more wind-protected areas showed signs of warming with a few small loose wet avalanches observed.

The warmth was felt while moving lower in elevation and into sheltered areas in the afternoon with moist snow on all wind-sheltered aspects. Steep southerlies near and below treeline had a couple inches of wet recent snow on a weak and moist crust from last week which had all but broken down. Triggering a Wet Loose avalanche on these slopes was possible. Northerly aspects had a few inches of moist snow leading to lots of rollerballs and pinwheels.  Roller balls were observed on northeast aspect of Axtel up to 11,900′. Additional warming of these slopes will make triggering Wet Loose avalanches possible.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/04/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Cloudy, windy, and warm
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9,200′ – 12,000′

Avalanches: Observed a couple of older Wet Loose avalanches from several days ago on E and SW aspects, very small in size.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with a few snowflakes. Moderate west-southwest winds near treeline. Very short and sporadic periods of sunshine through around 2pm.

Snowpack: Traveled mostly through southerly aspects below and near treeline. East through southwest aspects near treeline remained frozen or became slightly moist through 2pm. Locations exposed to the wind did not soften at all while protected locations became slightly moist. Crusts on SE, S, SW near treeline were quite thick around 4 to 6 inches. This area received relatively little snow with the last storm so there was not much snow to transition. It wasn’t until about 10,500 that surfaces became wet. Crusts barely remained intact below treeline with boot penetration occasionally to ground in shallow places. Wet Loose activity did not develop through 2pm but with a bit more sunshine it certainly would have.