Roadside Attractions

CBAC February 7, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/07/2021
Name: Jared Berman

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Whetstone pictures taken fron CO-135
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000

Avalanches: Two recent storm slabs that ran naturally at 9,000ft on NE facing slopes.
Weather: Sunny skies, warm temps, and strong winds from the NW.
Snowpack: Driving around, I observed active wind loading on easterly terrain features above treeline. Many avalanches observed on Whetstone, most of which have already been reported. I never left the car.

Photos:

Dog walk avy obs

CBAC February 7, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/07/2021
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Northwest Mountains

Avalanches: Got views of a few more large avalanches to the north and west of town. The slides on the South aspect of Mineral Point and the ESE aspect of Baldy have crowns that have filled in a bit indicating they likely ran late on 2/5 or early 2/6. The Rock Creek Bowl slide on Baldy’s SE side looks a bit fresher, possibly during the day yesterday or overnight.

: Baldy, SSE ATL. Crown and debris indicate this likely ran in the last 12-18 hours.

: Mineral Point, S ATL. Debris and crown buffed a bit, likely ran late 2/5 or early 2/6.

: Baldy, ESE ATL. Likely ran late 2/5 or early 2/6.

Multiple crowns near Baldy

CBAC February 6, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/06/2021

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Near Baldy
Aspect: East
Elevation: ATL

Avalanches: Multiple D2 crowns that ran last night. See photo.

Photos:

Lawd help us all – Mt. Axtell changes color from white to brown overnight

CBAC February 6, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/06/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Mt. Axtell
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: Near to above treeline

Avalanches: Extensive persistent slab activity across the upper bowls of Mt. Axtell. Crowns averaged 4 feet deep breaking on weak layers near the ground. Some of the more impressive propagation across multiple start zones or whole bowls that I’ve seen up there. Debris piles from the two largest slides snapped lots of trees and reached well into valley runouts, D3.5 in size. Bedsurfaces had a few inches of snow on them; the slides ran last night sometime, on N, E, and S aspects. We didn’t observe any more natural activity on Axtell or surrounding terrain today. See photos for highlights.
Had good views of the W/SW side of Whetstone and no activity there. Decent views of the north side of Carbon and saw one D2.
Weather: Cool temps, mostly cloudy. Moderate winds with a few strong gusts in exposed terrain. Moderate drifting continued above treeline, light drifting near treeline.
Snowpack: About 6″ to 8″ of new snow near the bottom of the skin track. Riding out to Splains Gulch on sleds felt more like 15″ to 18″. We mostly traveled in dense trees, windswept ridgelines, or low angle south-facing terrain and only experienced one large collapse. We tried stomping near a few N/BTL start zones that didn’t run last night without results.

Photos:

: Very wide crown (D3.5) extending from the Pencil to Wang Chung Face. North to northeast aspect NTL.

: Closer look at the crown above the Pencil

: Debris below Wang Chung Face

: Very wide crown (D3.5) in 5th Bowl. North to east aspect above treeline. View is looking southeast.

: Very wide crown (D3.5) in 5th Bowl. View is looking northwest.

: D2 and D2.5 in 7th bowl, on Southeast to South aspects.

: Rough outline of debris below 5th bowl. Lots of trees down

: D2 persistent slab on north side of Carbon, crossloaded BTL

: D1 to D1.5 slabs above Kebler Road. East aspect BTL.

: A different view of the Climax crowns.

Avalanche burial and Ruby carnage

CBAC February 6, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/06/2021
Name: Irwin Guides

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Irwin Tenure

Avalanches: Patroller capture and full burial on Sunny Shoulder Right (SW@ 11.6k near TL) during AM ski checks. Companion rescue, no injuries. The SS-ASu-R2/D2-O 75cm x 15m x 100m ran on a crust, but not the most recent crust; stepped down lower in the track; and fetched up in the compressions zone producing a debris field ~75m wide and up to 3m deep in spots. The slope was not open, but was being prepared for opening. It received ~30 lbs of explosives (6 shots) yesterday including a 17lb air blast.

Also, Ruby ran wall to wall, maybe D3+, probably last night during peak PI or wind. You probably heard.
Weather:
Snowpack: HST 17″ with .9″ of water. 13″ of that came overnight last night. Despite strong alpine winds, transport and Wind Slab were not significant factors near and below treeline in areas travelled. Excellent powder skiing. Explosive testing produced no results. Ski testing also produced no notable results, with the following notable exception.

Photos:

Coon Basin…again

CBAC February 6, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/06/2021
Name: Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coon Basin

Avalanches: A third large avalanche released in Coon Basin after a day of continued wind loading. Cleared out what was left above the old crown while breaking at the ground and taking the entire season’s snowpack with it.

: Another large avalanche released on an Easterly slope ATL during the afternoon on 2/6 after winds continued to drift snow.

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Weekly Snowpack, Weather, and Avalanche Summary 2/5/21

CBAC February 5, 20212020-21 Weekly Snowpack Summary

Date of Observation: 02/05/2021

Author: Jack Caprio

Location: Crested Butte Backcountry

3 days of abnormally warm temperatures sandwiched between two large loading events. You guessed it, HIGH danger and lots of avalanches. Check out the weekly summary to see a recap of our eventful week.

Short Tour & Few More Avalanches

CBAC February 4, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/04/2021
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: Remotely triggered two avalanches on lower elevation E to SE facing slopes. The first was remotely triggered from a low angled ridgeline and released as a storm slab on the most recent interface. The second was also remotely triggered from a low angled Ridgeline several hundred feet away, that slab released on weak facets at the 1/19 interface. Both avalanches were soft slabs with crowns in the 2 to 2.5-foot range.

Weather: Bluebird in the morning, becoming mostly cloudy in the afternoon with light snowfall. I never got up high enough to observe ridgeline winds.

Snowpack: Fairly quick afternoon tour to get a feel of how conditions were shaping up. Targeted one SW facing slope at 10,400ft with no current avalanche concerns under this load, other than the possibility of a storm slab releasing on the preserved graupel. Recent storm accumulations were about 30cm’s at that location near the Irwin Y. Headed back through similar elevations on E to SE facing slopes and obviously, they were much more reactive.

: SSW at 10,800ft.

: Wind-loaded storm slab. SE, BTL, Mt Emmons

: D2 NE Peanut Lake RD

: D1.5 NE Peanut Lake RD

Storm slab in Red Lady Glades

CBAC February 4, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/04/2021
Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9200′-11,600′

Avalanches: Previously reported persistent slab on East facing ridgeline in Red Lady Bowl.

While descending a ridge above a steep convexity in Red Lady Glades, either our group or a prior group remotely triggered a D1 storm slab avalanche. The slide occurred on an ESE facing aspect below treeline. The crown was about 8-10″ and failed on the new snow/ old snow interface.
(SS-ASr-R1-D1-I).

Weather: Sky conditions varied from scattered to broken throughout our tour. Occasional periods of very light snowfall (S-1). As we gained the ridge near treeline, the wind blew at a moderate speed out of the W/NW, with the intermittent strong gust.

Snowpack: About 8-10″ of new snow from last night. Noticeable loading on easterly facing slopes. The snow on SE/S facing slopes stayed dry above 10,200′ and the skiing was great. Below 10,200′, a thin zipper crust developed on the surface due to the sunshine this morning.

Photos:

: Storm Slab avalanche in Red Lady Glades

: Small Storm Slab on south aspect near Deer Creek (viewed from Snodgrass Th

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Remote triggered slide in Red Lady Bowl, and more natural avalanches

CBAC February 4, 20212020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 02/04/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains, views of Northwest Mountains as well
Location: Red Lady
Aspect: North East
Elevation: NTL

Avalanches: Less natural activity than I expected to see after last night’s intense precip. Good views of Axtell, Emmons, parts of Schuylkill, and parts of the Ruby Range this morning. Photos below show the largest activity that I could see. The most notable was a very wide avalanche in Elk Creek, which spanned multiple start zones.
While heading to ski Red Lady Glades, we remotely triggered a large persistent slab in Red Lady Bowl. We watched a group of 5 skiers descend the bowl around 10 a.m. Once they were clear of the runout, I ventured off the skin track, stomped along the ridgeline twice with skis on, then took off a ski and sunk my boot down to the weak layer and got the collapse. The slide propagated about 1800 feet along the E/NE side of the bowl, 3 to 4 feet thick on average. It failed on the 1/19 interface and gouged to the ground. The 1/19 layer is close to the ground here due to strong wind erosion on this slope during the mid-January wind event. (SS-AFr-R2-D2.5-O) The slide sympathetically triggered a smaller avalanche on a rollover in the bowl (D1).
Weather: Cold and clear this morning. Some light snow transport on the highest peaks. Clouds increased mid-day.
Snowpack: 8″ to 10″ of new, relatively dense snow. The dense powder is riding great on slopes less than 30 degrees.

Photos: