Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/11/2020
Subject: Anthracite Mesa-Coneys
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches:  Just saw 3 R1 D0.5 hard slab avalanches in the neighborhood, which looked like they occurred over a week ago.

Weather: calm, obstructed skies, and cold with air temperature less than 10 degrees F.

Snowpack: no instabilities observed on and off skin track. between 4 and 6 inches of new snow and 8 inches in a favorable area within past 48 hours. one probe at ridge top revealed a depth of 120 cm.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2020
Subject: Small Storm Slab Axtel 1st bowl
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 10500′

Avalanches:

Small storm slab broke while traversing left through small trees on a mid-lower slope in 1st bowl on Axtel. Crown about 8 inches. R1D1. Relatively small but ran into thick small trees. Rocky bed surface, probably shallower snowpack and more East facing. About 10meters wide, possibly 20meters down. Sorry no photos.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2020
Name: Zach Kinler and Eric Murrow
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 8,800′-12,070′

Avalanches: 1 small skier triggered wind slab: HS-AS-R1-D1-I

Weather: Cold with temps in single digits to low teens. Low clouds in valley bottom gave way to sunny skies midday before orographic clouds rolled back in from the NW. Winds calm in sheltered terrain on the climb to ridgeline where moderate NW winds greeted us.

Snowpack: 1-2″ new snow overnight. Below and near treeline slopes had an HS of 50-70 cm. Open and steeper slopes held stacks of crusts with weak snow in between while low angle slopes and more easterly aspects were mostly faceted and lacking any slab. Moving above tree line, the snowpack is quite variable with many windward slopes stripped clean while gullies and inset features on South and West aspects have been cross-loaded and are holding much more snow. Recent snow and wind created very isolated and small wind slabs. On due south, supportive crusts on steeper upper elevations slopes gave way to thinner breaker crusts on lower angle terrain.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2020
Subject: Surprise
Aspect: North, East
Elevation: ATL, BTL

Avalanches: None seen, some small surface sluffs on SE aspect that didn’t go far

Weather: Broken, was snowing pretty good when we left around noon.

Snowpack: I’d call it 12-14 new total in some spots, light with some minor sluffing from turns in steeper terrain.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/10/2020
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Incremental Loading And Human Triggered Avalanches
Aspect: North, East, South
Elevation: 9,000-11,300

Avalanches: Human triggered two Persistent Slab Avalanches, failing on facets near the middle of the snowpack, on easterly to northeasterly aspects. Both of the slopes that these small avalanches failed on, had avalanched previously this winter and are now just starting to build soft slabs again above the weak layer. 2xSS-AM-R1-D1-O.

Weather: Mostly Cloudy to Obscured. An orographic cloud kept moving in and out, while areas closer to Crested Butte looked to have fewer clouds. Calm Winds. Mostly S-1.

Snowpack: No obvious signs to instability through most of the terrain traveled. The exception was on slopes with a well below average total snowpack height and a considerably weaker snowpack. I’d estimate that these slopes previously avalanched around Mid-December, leaving them shallow and further weakening through the Mid-December dry spell. The soft slab above consisted of the late December and/or January snow. Recent storm totals were around 7-8″ in this area.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2020
Name: Elias G
Subject: Lap on the Grass
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9600′ – 11,000′

Avalanches: Old crown lines that are filling back in, D .5-1 on convexities/rollovers, N facing BTL terrain.

Weather: Overcast and a bit obscured all day, S-1, calm with temps. in mid teens.

Snowpack: 1″ new snow overnight. Crust on E/SE aspects BTL, now under an 1″ of new (slick w/ new snow), ~ 1-2cm thick perhaps slightly thicker in more open terrain, was supportable to ski in spots but punchy to boot pen. Small size loose dry avalanching on steeper northerly slopes, not enough to bury a person but can run a good distance down slope.
Still fun and surfy out there!