Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/28/2020
Name: Evan Ross & Eric Murrow
Subject: Beckwith Pass
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 10,000-11,500ft

Avalanches: Clear weather and great views. The recent avalanche activity on Ruby and Owen were the only avalanche obs of note.

Weather: Beautiful, clear and calm day. Some blowing snow could be seen off the high peaks in the morning, but otherwise nothing else noted.

Snowpack: About 3″ to 4″ of new snow in the area. Some recent wind effect and a little drifting in the new snow, but no Wind Slab issues were encountered. Deeper persistent slab issues were quiet with no obvious sings to instability. We managed the terrain with the potential consequence of a large slab in mind and reduced the likely-hood of trigging by further evaluating our travel on previously wind-loaded terrain and areas that the snowpack thinned.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/27/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Kebler
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9200′ – 10700′

Avalanches: none observed

Weather: S-1 to S1 snowfall during early afternoon, moderate westerly winds blowing new snow around. New snow accumulation near Irwin reached a bit over 3 inches at 3pm.

Snowpack: Rambled snowmobiles around checking on crust formation from the past two days of warm weather. Steep, south-facing slopes had crusts close to 4cm thick at the lowest elevation close o 9K, but these were still fairly soft and not quite supportive to skis. As you transitioned to the east or west of south crust thinned and became weak, full-breaker riding conditions just beneath the new snow.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2020
Name: Irwin Cat obs
Subject: Irwin Cat Obs
Aspect: Westerly

Avalanches:
Avalanche observations:
HS-AE-R2-D2-O FC (30cm x 75m x 200m) Apex of crown was ~170 cm for a width of ~3m then tapered towards an average of 30 cm on the remaining crown face and flanks.
SS-AB-R2-D2-I DF (20cm x 15m x 400m) Mostly just the most recent snow moving.
HS-AB-R2-D2-O FC (20cm x 50m x 200m)

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2020
Name: Zack Kinler & Eric Murrow
Subject: West Facing Snodgrass Tour
Aspect: West
Elevation: 9600′ – 10400′

Avalanches: Observed one fairly recent significant avalanche on Schuylkill Peaks east face. Appears as though a cornice fall triggered a relatively deep slab but did not propagate particularly far for the depth of failure. see photos

Weather: Light winds, decreasing clouds, strong solar and warm air temps.

Snowpack: Traveled through several short west-facing slopes on Snodgrass. HS through this terrain averaged around 115cm. The snow surface was a thin(1cm) and soft melt/freeze crust on due west slopes up to 10400′. Upper snowpack was up to 4finger soft slab resting on very weak facets in the middle of the pack which sat upon stronger facets above the ground (see photo). Hard propagating test results on this very weak snow in the middle of the snowpack but no collapsing or cracking on test slopes. A poor looking structure that could produce an avalanche on steep terrain or at locations with additional wind-loading. I would expect shallower portions of the forecast area to the east of Crested Butte would have even less slab formation on westerly slopes below treeline.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/26/2020
Subject: Small wet slide on SW
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: 10,500

Avalanches: Triggered a small R1-D1 slow moving wet slide ran as a slab about 20 ft wide running 50ft downhill. Crown only about 6” deep.

Weather: Warm day. High of 38 in gothic.

Snowpack: S facing terrain had gone through a melt freeze with a breakable crust by 3:15pm. Small SW facing rolls were still wet.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/25/2020
Name: Joey Carpenter
Subject: Paradise Divide S/SW
Aspect: South, South West, West
Elevation: 11k-12250k
Avalanches:
Glide cracks creeping down throughout the day on repeater path @ purple palace, ~10k.
2ish day old windslab W face gothic, crossloaded feature. Appeared to be confined to recent storm snow.
E face off SE ridge of purple. Recent storm snow, R2D2. Debris ran to bench/lake ~1600 vert. This has been a repeater path this season and appears to have run around 1/23
Debris toes off cinnamon. S faces. Ran to the trail. Again appear to be from most recent cycle.
Two more debris toes from WSC bowl. N aspect. These appear to have run possibly during last weeks (1/17) wind event.

Weather: Low clouds in the western part of the fx area persisted throughout the day. The eastern fx area had much clearer skies. Light orographic snowfall S-1 was intermittent throughout the day on Baldy’s southern ridge. Clouds increased in the area and obscured skies around 2p but had cleared by the time I returned to the trailhead @ ~330p. Winds were calm to light with no transport observed. Temps remained comfortable at 12k and warmed near valley bottoms.

Snowpack: The idea of today was to find spots to dig on S and W slopes near paradise divide. What I discovered is that there is as vast variety of mixed, shallow garbage laced with easily collapsible crust/facet combos at all elevation bands traveled through this area. SPX depths varied vastly, SW/S/SE areas along upper elevation ridgelines held an inconsistent menu of faceted junk, to facets capped by a crust, to facets capped with a crust with storm snow atop, to larger slabs resting on faceted junk. The further SE tilt held the larger slabs. Deepest spx on these aspects approached 120cm on slightly leeward terrain, to exposed bushes and rock on windward sides. The western side of the S bowl on baldy appeared heavily crossloaded while the eastern portion had bushes/rocks protruding. Large midwinter like cornices have begun to build along easterly facing terrain at upper elevations. Got one whumph and associated crack at 11.5k on a 27 degree SW aspect w/ HS of 55c. 25c storm snow and 30c of facets. Crack failed at storm snow interface. Snow surfaces below 11.5k facing SE and S moistened during the day with intense solar influence. By the time the sun tilted SW, clouds began to filter. Overall impression is that these solar influenced aspects with enough snow to ski have a huge variety in depth and layering that makes any penetrable slab structure very suspect. The skiing was also terrible and I got my sled really, reaally stuck.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/24/2020
Subject: Irwin Cat Obs
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 10-12,000ft
Avalanches:
SS-ASc-R1/D1 Pre-Evac (east facing)
Snowpack notably more resistant to AS today.
Lone Wolf SS-AE-R2-D2-O FC (50cm x 25m x 250m) Small wind slab step down to persistent slab

Weather: FEW>OVC Light winds and mild temps

Snowpack: Crust formation on solar aspects

Photos: