Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/21/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Elkton area obs
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9400′ – 11700′

Avalanches:Visbility was obscured for much of the day but had a few glimpses into near and above treeline terrain and observed just one avalanche that I would guess failed maybe on Friday on a drifted near treeline slope the faces northeast. Looked to be about D1.5 on a very drifty feature below a cornice.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies after about 10am with on and off snow showers. The sun was often visible through the cloud cover and green-housing was felt multiple times during the day. New snow accumulation during the day through 330pm was about 2 inches. A brief period of sunshine early in the morning shortly after sunrise was enough to moisten the snow surface on slopes with any exposure to the sun including northeast.

Snowpack: Poked a number of holes on northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, and west-facing slopes between 10,000 and 11,700 feet. Settled storm snow was generally in the 20 to 24 inch range. At a location with 22″ of storm snow I measured 1.9″SWE at noon.

On slopes that faced east through south through west, I found the storm snow was bonding much better than the day prior. CT’s, ECT’s, and hasty hand shears were not able to produce any results on top of the crust sitting below the storm snow. I made several attempts to identify faceted grains but couldn’t. The slab appears to be bonding reasonably well. No cracking was observed.  Southeast through south through west slopes had crusts strong enough carry the current new burden. East facing slopes around 11,000′ had a thinner crust but there were frozen ice columns beneath for several inches. East and southeast slopes had a few inches of moist snow from this morning’s sun near the surface. South and west slopes had a soft crust buried beneath four or five inches of dry snow that formed during yesterday’s brief sunshine in the afternoon.

Slopes that tilted more north of east were a different story. There is a soft thin crust at the new/old interface with a very thin layer of facets immediately above. Test results were ECTN 12,13 at the new/old interface on this slope. Slab hardness is mostly fist and 4finger with a small amount of 1finger right above the new/old interface. Slopes with this structure may present the chance for triggered avalanched longer than slopes on the south half of the compass. The snow beneath the crust was also slightly faceted but most of this snow was graupel-ly precip. This layer may be worth watching with more loading.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/21/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Sluffs And A Small Slab
Aspect: North, South East, North West
Elevation: 9,000-12,400

Avalanches: Small dry sluffs in the alpine. One fresh, small D1.5 slab, on a ENE facing slope, at 11,800ft. Unknown trigger on the slab, maybe people hiking above.

Weather: Clouds increased in the morning becoming overcast to obscured with S-1 snow. Light filtered through thin clouds at times improving visibility and creating some green housing. Calm wind.

Snowpack: No signs to instability were encountered. Similar to yesterday, many small dry sluffs have run in the alpine but those are not further triggering storm slabs. There has been very little wind-loading in the alpine over the last couple days. Wind-loading during the peak winds last Thursday, has been covered up by the more recent snow falling with little to no wind. While observations pointed to more of a sluffing avalanche problem, we still considered the possibility of triggering a slab avalanche on some steep terrain features or unsupported slopes.

A test profile on a northerly facing slope at 11,900ft. Had an HS of 250cm. A thick layer of grauple was down 65cm and a couple storm instabilities were found in the upper snowpack. No significant test results.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/21/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Storm snow
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East
Elevation: 8900′ – 10400′

Avalanches: During a brief period of clearing observed numerous fresh loose avalanches on steep terrain at all elevation on north, east, south, and southwest aspects. Also observed a D1.5 Storm Slab on ENE aspect of Schuylkill Ridge, that look to have failed yesterday.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with on and off snow showers. New snow accumulations during the day were less than 2 inches. During the afternoon skies began to slightly clear with short periods of sunlight.

Snowpack: Storm total at 10400 feet was right about 20″ with 1.7″SWE. Snow from the previous day was noticeably denser. Ski pen was several inches above the new/old interface. Quick tests on the storm snow showed marginal bonding with old surfaces (crusts and dry snow). Overlying slab remained fairly soft, but on the steepest features was still able to shoot cracks up to 20 feet. At the end of the day sun and warming temps began to moisten the snow surface on all aspects but due north below about 10,000 feet and rapidly settle the snow that was hit by direct sun.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/20/2020
Name: Joey Carpenter
Subject: Skook
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9-11.4k

Avalanches:
R1D1 skier trigger along small convexity at 11.1k approx 18 inches deep. Ran more like loose dry than slab. Broke in frown, not lateral slab release.

R1.5D1.5 on larger convexity just below approx 10.8k that broke more like 3 smaller slabs as skier cut across the roll. Confined to storm snow. 18” deep and 200ft wide. Not enough to bury but definitely enough to carry and rake an unsuspecting skier through terrain features… Debris ran around 400 vert.

Weather: On and off snowfall throughout the morning. Approximately 2” accumulation. Brief periods of sun rapidly altered low elevation snow surfaces but everything above 10k stayed cold on aspect we traveled.

Snowpack: Storm settled to ~18” from yesterday. Lower elevations had moistened crust beneath storm snow.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/20/2020
Name: MR

Subject: baxter basin avalanches

Avalanches:
first two photos is of sluffs that ran on the SE face of Cascade, the longest of which ran estimated 600-800 vertical feet. Ran around 11 am today.

third photo is north face of schuykill sub peak above the eastern side of camo glades. Estimated crown width 300-400 feet, running 100 feet or so, maybe 12 inch crown, guessing it ran either end of day yesterday or sometime this morning.

Last photo is SSW facing, wet loose, just reaching our sled track from the morning. Guessing it ran 800-1000 vertical feet, sometime early afternoon today.

Weather: intermittent snow all day, staying surprisingly cold in the trees. sun peaking out occasionally and warming the air and non-sheltered snow rapidly.

Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/20/2020
Subject: Gothic Obs
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9500-10500

Avalanches:Skier triggered a R1D1 storm on a 37 degree rollover. Propagated about 150ft wide, but only ran 50ft downhill

Weather: On and off snow all morning. Sometimes heavy

Snowpack: 14” from the storm when we left up to 17” when we got back

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/19/2020
Name: Ben Pritchett
Subject: Red Lady Ob

Avalanches: On slopes steeper than about 35 degrees it was easy to trigger Storm Slab avalanches underfoot and remotely down-slope and on adjacent features 200-300 feet away. Slabs were slow and pushy, generally between 1-2 feet deep, but gather a pretty good head of steam given the dense new snow. Given the terrain we were testing, most avalanche remained on the large side of D1, but where small slides ran into steeper connected terrain below, the slides easily grew to D2’s. Where the old snow surface was crusted, triggering was easy, failing on small facets above the crust. These facets were difficult to isolate on a card and identify given the sticky snow, but no question the sunny slopes had facets failing below the storm snow. On shadier slopes, the storm snow was stubborn to trigger. It was difficult to trigger slabs on steep northeasterly-facing slopes with soft old-snow surfaces, but once avalanches initiated on crusted slopes impacted the shady slopes, they would break too.

Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 20-30 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
Wind Loading: Moderate
Temperature: 25 F
Sky Cover: Obscured
Depth of New Snow: 28 cm
Depth of Total Snow: 140 cm
Most Significant Precip Rate: S5 – 5 cm/hr
Weather Description: Very snowy day. Started around 3am, didn’t let up until around 6pm. Picked up over a foot of snow, with over an inch of water near Crested Butte. Snowfall reports from riders coming back from around Kebler Pass reported over 20″ new snow. Winds picked up after sunrise, and stayed strong through mid-day.

Snowpack: Snowpack Description: Thick, dense new snow fell on faceted crusts on E-S-W facing terrain. This may be a new Persistent Slab problem.

Photos: