Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/04/2020
Name: Zach Kinler
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, West, North West
Elevation: 9,000′-11,400′
Avalanches:

1x Wet Loose D1 E 10,000′
3x Wet Loose D1.5 ENE 10,400′

Weather: Clouds remained prominent with the sun breaking through for short periods until about 16:00 when widespread clearing occurred. Those short periods of sun before clearing did not pass unnoticed however and quickly changed the surface snow. At 14:15, elevation 11,400′ air temp rose to 3.5C(38F). Winds were light and variable, increasing mid-afternoon and blowing down valley with a northerly component near and below tree line.

Snowpack: Slopes on the southerly half of the compass near and below treeline became moist to wet with previous crusts breaking down below tree line. Near tree line, recent 1-3″ of snow was wet with underlying crusts moist but staying supportive leaving Wet Loose avalanche concerns small in size. NW-N-NE slopes became moist on all elevations traveled. Above 11K this moist snow was limited to the upper 5 cm with no Wet Loose avalanche concerns. Below 11K, snow was moist to previous crust which remained dry with no Wet Loose avalanche concerns. Targeted the 3/18 crust/facet combo on a NE aspect at 11,200′ where hard propagating results were observed as this interface remains unlikely to trigger but not totally forgotten.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/03/2020
Subject: Dust on crust, and maybe some dust?
Aspect: South East, West
]Elevation: ATL

Avalanches: Newer sluffy ones on an east face. A small windslab on skiers right side of a west facing gully. Did kick off a small piece of cornice with a foot down into a SE aspect and it got new snow moving, 20′ wide, at a pretty good rate that ran through choke and out into apron below. Did not dig deeper into snowpack but enough to knock you off your feet and wreck your day.

Weather: 5-10 mph breeze up top

Snowpack: West had 2-4 inches of dust on firm crust

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 04/03/2020
Name: Turner Petersen
Subject: Old wind slab summit bowl Whetstone.
Aspect: East
Elevation: 12,500

Avalanches:(Happened last week naturally) Location: Due East summit bowl of Whetstone, 12,500ft. Ran 500 feet. Lots of old Wind slabs breaking from cornice. from last weeks brutal wind event. Although yesterday’s storm accumulation of 1” wasn’t much, strong winds had already fully loaded in the old crown.

Weather: Cold! Windy! Full winter. Winds in the upper 20’s, 1 inch of fresh snow, bluebird.

Snowpack: Upper northerlies still skiing cold and dry. We skied down the summit ridge to avoid cornices and wind loading to jump on the unaffected cold snow. East faces were extremely wind loaded.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/03/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Paradise Divide
Aspect: North, East, South, West
Elevation: 9,500-12,500

Avalanches: Good views covering miles of terrain. Other then some small dry sluffs I only found one slab avalanche. That was in Baxter Basin, on a northerly aspect at about 11,800ft. A shallow windslab ran into the bowl below, triggering another small shallow soft slab in the new snow. D1.5 in size

Weather: Beautiful clear day. High clouds developed in the late afternoon. Surprisingly light winds even with much of the day spent around 12,000ft. Drifting snow was also far less than anticipated. As gusts would move through, they would drift the snow off the high peaks and ridgelines. Winds seemed to pick up a bit in the afternoon. Cold Temps.

4″ of snow measured at Elkton in the morning, and 6″ of snow measured at Schofield Pass at noon.

Snowpack: Other than considering some cornice hazards, no avalanche problems were encountered. Tested many terrain features that looked wind-loaded and found nice soft snow with no issues. I would imagine that some other ridge-lines or other high peaks had more of a problem. No wet avalanche concerns at all elevations. Below treeline is mostly dust on crust. Unless that crust breaks down, there are few slopes that looked like they could produce much of a loose wet avalanche.

A shallow windslab in the shadows near the ridgeline, ran into the bowl triggering another shallow soft slab in the new snow. D1.5 in size.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/03/2020
Name: billy barr
Subject: Gothic 7am Weather Update

Weather: Not a lot to report. Light afternoon snow Thursday then light into the evening before stopping and clearing. A dense snow at times with wind. Total snow 3″ and water 0.27″ with currently 45½” on the ground. Clear and cooler with the low the current 5ºF and no wind.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 04/01/2020
Name: Turner Petersen
Subject: S Carbon Spoon Natural Wet Slide
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 11,000

Avalanches: Natural wet slides from previous day. Ran aprox. 300ft from cornice down through trees.

Snowpack: Full freeze thaw crust on E—SW. upper northerlies still dry and cold.

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 04/01/2020
Name: Eric Murrow & Zach Kinler
Subject: East side shaded snowpack obs
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 8,900′ – 12,250′

Avalanches: Observed a handful of recent (past couple days) Wet Loose avalanches on southerly and east aspects near treeline. Most came from rocky areas or locations immediately below cornices. The largest one came from a south aspect on flanks of WSC Peak, D1.5-D2ish in size. Most other Wet Loose avalanches were very small. Far less Wet Loose activity in Cement and Brush Creek drainages than Kebler Pass and Paradise Divide areas.

Lots of small to moderate recent cornice falls on east through south aspects without result.

Very little evidence of significant avalanche activity from the past week. Visibility was ok, but light was flat so possibly could have missed evidence viewing much of the terrain at a significant distance. The natural avalanche reported from the east bowl of Cement Mountain on 3/29 was the most significant avalanche observed.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies to start the day with increasing cloud cover. Winds from the southwest were constant near and above treeline. Speeds never pushed much above 20mph.  Some snow continues to be transported to easterly alpine features.

Snowpack: Made targeted obs on shaded slopes near treeline looking at Persistent Slab structure. The upper 35cm of the snowpack had two interfaces of interest that presumably formed during the past few weeks. In the shallower, minimally drifted, sites we dug at produced ECTN results. The lower of these two interfaces is a soft melt/freeze crust with a thin layer of facets above the crust much like other parts of the range. The faceted grains were about 1 – 1.5mm in size and showed signs of rounding. The middle and lower snowpack has gained a substantial amount of strength over the past month. The oldest Depth Hoar near the ground was 1finger hard with substantial rounding. The one interface of interest in the lower snowpack did not produce any results in CT or ECT even when hammering until my hand hurt, but would pop when the column was pried with a shovel. See photo

Photos: