Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/21/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Ruby Chute
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 10-12,800ft

Avalanches: Popped a few small wind slabs no deeper than 25cm descending couloir proper, fairly stubborn with most needing to have been undercut by the previous skier to then pop. Pretty manageable but enough slabs to keep our guard up.

Weather: clear, calm, strong solar radiation and noticeable valley inversion early before 0800.

Snowpack: crusty on souths with most of Monday’s snow either blown clear or cooked down. Shady aspects still hold cold snow and old wind slabs stubborn to weight of skier hang on in areas the sun cannot reach. 60m rope needed for rappel.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/21/2020
Name: Kyle
Subject: Obs from Cony’s
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9,800-10,800

Avalanches: Wet loose slides on South Face of Mineral Point. Debris seen NTL, E aspect in Wolverine basin.

Weather: Sunny, winds calm to light.

Snowpack: Wet snow and refreezing found on Southerly aspects. Shaded aspects did not experience melt/freeze. Poor structure confirmed with a hand pit and pole probes on NE shaded aspects. Strong slab above mudpack persistent weak layer seems supportive of skier weight on E aspects. No collapses or cracks experienced skiing slopes up to 35 degrees.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/21/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Look Around The Range
Elevation: 9,000-11,500

Avalanches: Simple look around the range near the divide. A few small loose wet avalanches were seen on east and southerly facing slopes at mid to lower elevations. Didn’t stay out late enough to see how SW and W held up.

A fresh cornice released, triggering a slab below that didn’t propagate across the slope very far on An East Aspect of Wolverine Basin at 11,800ft.
On Mt Gunnison, another cornices had released and triggered a large to very large slab on the east face below. This event didn’t necessarily look real fresh, but given what little detail could be seen from so far away its hard to tell.

Weather: Beautiful Day. Mostly clear sky, calm wind and mild temps.

Snowpack: Quiet and settled upper snowpack. Moist snow surface on steep southerly slopes.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/20/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Explosive Triggered Avalanche Irwin
Aspect: West
Elevation: 11,500

Avalanches: Persistent slab avalanche 40-100cm deep, 1F hard failing on 4mm depth hoar in terrain not really touched yet this season with ski traffic or explosives. 15# explosive triggered small pocket which gouged as it ran. Impressive debris and similar to other slides we have triggered within the past 2 weeks in similar terrain.

Weather: clear, calm, strong solar radiation.

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/20/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: West Brush Creek
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 9000′ – 11800′

Avalanches: Viewed a couple more recent (failed early in the week) small slabs on east and northeast slopes near and below treeline.

Weather: Clear skies, cold valley bottom in moring gave way to mild air temps, and light winds.

Snowpack: Traveled to about treeline on Teocalli and dug a couple of test profiles – one on southeast(treeline) and another on an east slope(upper end of below treeline elevation) (see photos). Test results indicated that triggered avalanches remain possible. Sunnier slopes near and above treeline have crust/facet combinations with slabs resting above (likely similar structure to natural avalanches observed over the past week on south and southeast alpine slopes) and shaded slopes at upper end of below treeline elevation band have a very weak layer in middle of snowpack and near ground with a cohesive slab above. While stepping out of profile pit on E slope at 11000′, my partner and I produced a collapse in the snowpack that traveled several hundred feet but did not produce an avalanche on slope below (see photo).

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2020
Name: MR
Subject: small windslab
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,300

Avalanches: Intentionally triggered small windslab just below ridge top at the entrance to a north facing chute. See photo.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2020
Name: Zach Bauer
Subject: Unemployment Column test
Aspect: North
Elevation: 10000

Avalanches: none on the sheltered chutes.

Weather: High level clouds and a calm day, not too warm.

Snowpack: Dug a pit at 10000′ on the north aspect of the Unemployment Chutes. The pit was 3′ deep, the recent storm snow failed during a column test at 2 hits from the elbow. The base of the column disintegrated at 3 hits from the shoulder. The basal layer is extremely faceted and empty faceted snow. The snowpack is currently 1/2 faceted sugar in the bottom half, and the rest is a firmer layer of two week and week old snow. Distinct failures at both the storm and old snow interface, as well as the faceted vs unfaceted snow down lower. The conditions in the sheltered glades gave the green flag for a good decent back to town.