Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2020
Name: steve
Subject: Small Slides
Aspect: North, South
Elevation: 10,000-11,200

Avalanches:
1x SS-N-R1-D1-I on a South facing convexity at 11,200′. Could have been remotely triggered from the ridge, but I think it was due to a short period of strong solar radiation.

1x SS-ASu-R1-D1-I 1st skier ski cut, 2nd skier released a small pocket on a steep convex roll at 10,800′ in an open pocket in the trees
Weather: Overcast AM becoming Scattered by afternoon. Moderate WNW winds persisted, refilling the skin track through the day. Cold in there shade, warm in the sun.

Snowpack: less new snow than expected, about 6″ average. Obvious signs of wind transport during the storm.

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Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/18/2020
Name: Cosmo
Subject: Cement Creek
Elevation: 9300’
Weather: 3/4” new snow @ 5am

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Truck Tour Avalanche Activity

Avalanches: Took a drive around the area to look for fresh natural avalanche activity. Observed several obvious and widely propagating avalanches. Visibility was obscured for parts of the range but there appeared to be a few smaller natural Wind Slabs that I was unable to fully confirm on drifted upper elevation terrain.

Red Ridge 2x HS-R2-D3-O above treeline south aspects but propagating into southwest (one clearly ran earlier than the other)
Peeler Peak HS-R2-D2.5-O northeast aspect near treeline – 3rd-time repeater path this winter
Happy Chutes area SS-R1-D1.5-O/I northeast aspect below treeline – shallow storm slab “stepped down” midpath into old snow

Weather: Partly to mostly cloudy skies around town. Wind transported snow was visible for much of the day on nearby peaks – the loading appeared fairly efficient onto east-facing alpine terrain.

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Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2020
Name: ADB
Subject: Mt. Emmons
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: ATL, BTL, NTL

Avalanches: Evans Basin: HS-N-R.05-D0.5 on a cross loaded east-facing feature at BTL. This HS appears to have occurred during the last wind and not within the past 24 hours. Crown and scarp seemed a bit filled in with new snow.

Weather: Mostly overcast skies with temperature below freezing and holding steady. ATL/NTL: strong winds with cross loading into Red Lady bowl. BTL: light and moderate winds with no snow transport.

Snowpack: About 4 inches of new snow and wind didn’t fill in skin track BTL. Again, thanks dawn patrol. BTL in Red Glades in spruce and aspen, skied new snow on top of melt freeze crust, which was felt throughout the entire area.
No instabilities observed on skin track BTL and wind scoured ATL.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2020
Name: Billy
Subject: Gothic weather

Weather: Not really a lot to report except last nights 2″ of new snow (0.21″ water) was pretty much all graupel so that is a layer of snow that should show up in future snow pits. The 24 hour total is 4½” snow and 0.38″ water as Sunday snow was light density. Cloudy and windy all night (and when you get down to it, I think all my life) but warm with the high Sunday 28F and low today 23F. Snowpack is at the winters deepest of 40″ (15″ below average for this date). Currently cloudy, variable wind and snowing lightly. billy

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2020
Name: Cosmo
Subject: Cement Creek
Aspect: South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9300-10600

Weather: Storm total from the last 48hrs as of 630am @ 9300′-about 4 and a quarter inches. Snowfall on 2/16 was intermittent with more intense periods after 4pm. Kind of partly cloudy this morning. Not snowing currently.

Snowpack: Toured up to about 10600′ yesterday. No signs of instability. Crust from the middle of last week on southernmost aspects was supportable to skiers, becoming breakable as you wrap around to the west. Due west aspects are slabby and supportable, especially at higher elevations, becoming facety as you wrap further to the north. Most of the aspects we skied were only intermittently supportable below about 9800 or 10000 ft.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/16/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Kebler Pass snow check
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9200 – 11500′

Avalanches: Observed a couple of dry loose avalanches on very steep easterly terrain, very small in size and only involved new snow.

Weather: Overcast skies with light winds at valley bottom. Little to no snowfall from 1230 – 330. New snow accumulations of 5″ at 11,400′ @ 300pm. New snow was largely small graupel and rimed precip particles. A minimal amount of drifting at ridge top near treeline at this location. Had reasonable views of greater Anthracite Range in the afternoon with some wind transport visible above treeline but less than expected. Winds were from the west. Leaving Kebler Pass around 330 snowfall started again and winds began to pick up.

Snowpack: No cracking with the new snow or at old interface. Traveled through southerly start zones between 11,000′ – 11,500′ and found crusts 5 to 7cm thick on south aspects and 2-3cm thick on southeast beneath the new snow.  Due south slopes made for fun dust on crust skiing.

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Location: Paradise Divide Area & Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/15/2020
Name: Ben Pritchett and Evan Ross
Subject: Gothic area obs

Avalanches: A fresh very large natural avalanche ran on a southerly facing slope. The slab appears to have released under a cross-loaded cornice on southeast-facing fracture, but propagated broadly, wrapping to south, then south-west facing terrain. It released near the ground.

Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 20-30 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
Wind Loading: Light
Temperature: 30 F
Sky Cover: Overcast
Depth of Total Snow: 120 cm
Most Significant Precip Rate: S-1 – < 1 cm/hr
Weather Description: Partly cloudy becoming overcast by mid-afternoon. Spitting snow off and on mid-afternoon, no accumulation. Strong winds aloft, but sheltered and pretty warm where we traveled with no drifting close by. Light drifting above treeline

Snowpack: Nice snow surfaces for incoming storm – well settled, dense, and decomposing grains, near zero C. A couple of faint, muffled collapses in weak spots near old drifted slabs, but no cracking. No consistent persistent slab structure observed in this terrain, though we still avoided slopes over 40 degrees that dumped into terrain traps. 2/3 facet layer is somewhat weaker than near surface snow above it, but all pretty close to 4 Finger stiff.

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