Date of Observation: 02/24/2021
Name: Alex Tiberio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/23/2021
Name: Jack Caprio and Eric Murrow

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: North Cement Mountain
Aspect: North, North East, East, West, North West
Elevation: 9,000′-12,200

Avalanches: Observed a number of avalanches on Cement Mountain of varying ages from the past month.  Included images for avalanches that likely failed around the Feb 13/14 time frame.  Most of these avalanches failed on drifted features with two below treeline on non-drifted slopes.  Looking around leeward features in Southeast Mountains did not see any other recent avalanches.  While driving pavement in afternoon, I spotted a couple very small loose avalanche on Gothic Mountain coming out of steep, rocky southerly features.
Weather: A cold early morning in the canyon quickly gave way to warm, sunny weather. Above treeline, W and NW winds blew at consistent moderate speeds with high gusts.

Snowpack:  Toured up and over Cement Mountain.  This is a relatively shallow snowpack area as it is in the Southeast Mountains and receives less snow volume than other areas in Southeast Mountains due to its location.

Below 10k, the snowpack consisted of generally 80 cms of thin crust/ facet combos. When HS was less than around 80 cm, ski pen was to the ground. As we increased in elevation to about 10K-ish, HS increased above 80 cms to around 100cm and the snowpack thankfully began to support the weight of a skier while breaking trail. We didn’t get any alarming signs of instability as we were making our way up through the trees on N aspects below treeline.

As we got near and above treeline, we continued to see W and N winds transport snow onto leeward start zones. A snowpit test on a slightly windloaded, NE-facing aspect near treeline produced moderate propagating results. We did get one large rumbling collapse while traveling on ridgeline, adjacent to the NE facing start zones. The collapse did not produce any cracks but it was loud enough to hear over the blustering winds. Much of the avalanche paths we traveled above had already slid during the last 3 weeks. Most of the bed surfaces had not refilled enough to slide again. We chose not to ski any of the slopes that had previously avalanched because of the low quality of skiing, not necessarily avalanche hazard.  Briefly touched a few below treeline sunny slopes that were moist but not wet enough to cause Wet Loose concerns due to winds keeping surfaces relatively cool.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/22/2021
Name: Cosmo Langsfeld

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Middle cement creek
Aspect: East
Elevation: ~10k’

Avalanches: Small, fresh looking crown on same path that slid across cement creek road a little while back. Photo from Monday afternoon.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/21/2021
Name: jeff banks

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: gothic road at S curve
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9550

Avalanches: none
Weather: howling & cold all day, heavy transport drifting upslope from NE and loading top of California bowl (transport from the bottom) forming a new ~3ft cornice @ 10,800 on the blunt ridge in a break in the trees
Snowpack: 1 medium whumpf in heavily ski tracked conifer forest above weather station plot meadow @ 10,700

Propagation on PST X 2 on Gothic Road SE @ 9550
45/100 END down 70cm Failed on 4mm FC F hard 20cm above ground interface w/ MFCR Knife to 1F slab HS 100cm
40/110 END Same-Same

Date of Observation: 02/22/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Whetstone
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South West
Elevation: 8800 – 12100′

Avalanches: 3 large to very large persistent slabs in the past 24 hours. See photos.
A D3 on the south-facing path of Mt. Bellview ATL (triggered by cornice fall or windslab?)
A D2.5 on an east aspect NTL of Whetstone, triggered by windloading. The slide spanned multiple start zones and put large amounts of debris into two separate runouts. We investigated the crown; it failed on the 1/19 crust and quickly stepped down to basal facets, about 18″ to 24″ thick.
A D2 on a southwest aspect ATL on WSC peak, appears to be triggered by warming or a small loose wet.
Also 2 D2s on east aspects NTL of Storm Ridge (West Elk Wilderness outside of our forecast area) that looked fresh from the past 48 hours or so.
Weather: Mild temps, few clouds, light winds with no transport observed by the time our tour started late morning.
Snowpack: Generally a lack of signs of instability except where slabs were less than 18″ thick. We got several collapses and shooting cracks below 9,500′. We also got several rumbling collapses on a southwest aspect near treeline where snowpack was variable in thickness from previous wind erosion. Elsewhere, persistent slab structure is widespread (easy to feel with probing) but stomps and jumps didn’t produce any results. Stability test at 12,000′ on a SE aspect produced hard propagating results on 2mm facets near the ground, below a four-foot hard slab.

Photos:

Date of Observation: 02/21/2021

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Carbon Peak
Aspect: East
Elevation: NTL

Avalanches: See photo from Carbon Peak, E facing. Looks fresh from the most recent wind loading event.

Photos: