Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2020
Name: Irwin Snow Safety Teams
Subject: Irwin Cat Obs
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 10-12,000ft

Avalanches:

Widespread cracking and avalanching of the overnight snow, notable results in 2 Chutes, Outer Limits, Assassin Pockets, and 207. Persistent slab avalanche R2/D1 100cm x 15m x 50m (HS:135) Round Two under OL; either natural this morning or remote triggered by group in Widow Maker. This feature received explosive testing last week. CT23(RES)@35cm on the crown face. Impressive crown face, slab depth tapered rapidly on flanks limiting D potential. Several PS naturals in Peeler Basin.

Weather: OVC>BKN, 10-20 deg, NW 5-15 g20-30 at Ridge (notably lower BTL) Snowfall continued through midday, skies began to break ~1400. 4" new during day, 25" storm total with 1.8" SWE (!!)

Snowpack: Excellent snow surface quality even on solar aspects. 01/22 HN seems well bonded to the underlying layer, but 1/23 HN interface produced easy storm slab fractures on West in terrain that was not disturbed yesterday. Persistent slab problem is activating.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2020
Name: sam
Subject: observed natural avalanches
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Saw several natural avalanches on steep wind-loaded rolls above the bench between Pittsburg Rollers and Cabin Slide. Crowns looked to be a bit over a foot deep, likely ran yesterday into last night as many were already smoothed by wind and snow. Also saw several loose dry point releases off of cliff bands and two large slides off of the open shots on skooks that ran all they way to the valley bottom (similar to the slide observed in the open on skooks last Tuesday). Phone died so no photos.

Weather: Lightly snowing and balmy. Light south-west wind.

Snowpack: Deeper than expected. Maybe 5 to seven overnight of surprisingly blower pow given how warm it has been. Ski pen was over a foot deep.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2020
Subject: Kebler Pass
Aspect: North
Elevation: 10,200

Avalanches:

Skier triggered wind slab on convex roll. Crown was ~2’ and ran approximately 50 vertical feet.

Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2020
Subject: Storm Slab on Schuylkill
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,000 ft

Avalanches:

About a foot of new snow on top of Schuylkill Ridge. Dropped into what seemed to be more than a foot of new snow on ridge skiers left of Thanksgiving Bowl. Triggered a storm slab on a convex roll at about 11,000 ft. Estimated 15 inch crown, 50 feet wide, running about 700 feet. Not a good day to be on Spookill.

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2020
Name: Cosmo
Subject: Cement new snow
Elevation: 9400

Weather: 1.5” snow over last 48hours

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/21/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Poverty Gulch
Aspect: North, North East, East, North West
Elevation: 9000′ – 10650′
Avalanches:none observed

Weather: Overcast skies with light snow and calm winds with just a few very light gusts from the west in the afternoon. New snow accumulations just under 2″ at ~3pm.

Snowpack: While ascending we were able to find surface hoar buried last night on shaded slopes underneath the little bit of new snow. It was generally small only about 4mm. Dug a test profile in the upper snowpack to look at buried weak layers that formed and were buried over the past few weeks. Site was NW facing, at 10650′, that is susceptible to wind events as it is quite open. We choose this site to see if the buried surface hoar was present in windier locations. Down 45cm is a thin layer of near-surface facets with some small surface hoar sitting on it. This layer popped in shovel tilt test, and produced CT11 & ECTN16. Hammering on CT and ECT showed a planar interface down 55cm as well but well beyond standardized test. The slab over the surface hoar has settled significantly over the past week with boot pen about a foot deep.

Photos: