Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2019
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Washington Gulch
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,700

Avalanches:

No new

Weather: Overcast with a low ceiling in the morning. Warm temps and calm winds. Snow began around 11am and really kicked in around 12:30, tapering by 2:30. 3 cms of accumulation by 3 pm. Minimal winds all day, but coming from the E/SE if anything.

Snowpack: Ski pen 10 cms with boot pen around 40 cms. Very supportive snowpack. Probing throughout tour found HS 220 to 280. Very well consolidated upper 150-180 cms. Weak layers felt near the bottom of the pack, but they are down there deep.
Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Views down the Ruby’s and test in Paradise Divide
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9,500′ – 11,000′

Avalanches:

Viewed lots of old crown from the 3/6-3/8 date range-most activity looked to have happened during peak precip. Most crowns were filled back in pretty well. Activity was largely in near and above treeline terrain with relatively few in protected terrain. A couple of D3’s but nothing historically impressive noted. Got a tangent view of Baxter Basin and it looks to be the largest slide in the area. Avalanches failed around the compass in the area near and above treeline. Few Wind Slabs noted that failed in the past day or two, but not that many.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies with strong solar, light winds with some moderate gusting, no transport observed during PM while out.

Snowpack: Dug a couple of holes on sunny and shady slopes below in treeline elevation band. No notable stability test, just ECTN very near surface. We only tested new old/interface, nothing deeper. Settled storm depths in this snow favored area were around 90-110cm snow with about half being 1F hard. Of note – the crust at the 2/28 interface on sunny slopes was incredibly smooth and slick – prying on the block after standardized test would get the meter slab to pop right out. The 2/28 crust did not appear to be collapsible as it was sitting on dense snow with minimal faceting directly beneath or above. Basal snow on sunny slopes still looks ugly with 3mm rounding DH that is F+ to 4F hard. HS on shaded, protected terrain was 300-315cm deep.

During the day strong solar was able to produce roller balls on southerly slopes up through the near treeline elevation band originating from warm rocky areas. Wet activity entrained no mass. By 5pm snow surfaces began to refreeze. Crusts were 2-3cm thick with a few cm’s of moist snow still below.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2019
Name: JT

Subject: Coney’s CT
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,900

Avalanches:

Weather:

Snowpack: Snow depth 300 cm.

CT 20 , @100cm, Q3.

No instabilities while skiing.
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2019
Name: Erik Niemeyer

Subject: Carbon Peak
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,200

Avalanches:

The NE gully (north of The Spoon) ran top to bottom and wall to wall. Scoured many large trees from the edges of the gully, crossed FR 737 and went up the opposite hillside about 500m. Debris is also damming Carbon Creek with a small pool upstream of the field. Estimate it was a D4R5 that occurred on 3/8 or 3/9. A cross country skier we ran into reported they skied through this area on 3/7 and there was no slide. Wished we had a camera or phone with us.

Weather: Sunny. Calm winds. -5C.

Snowpack: NA
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2019
Name: ADB

Subject:
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches:

Above Meridian Lake on 3/9/19: storm cycle SS-N-R1-D1 (see pic)
Below Scarp Ridge in Redwell: recent SS-N-R1-D1
may have observed other old buried slides in Redwell, 1 in west face of Gothic, and Wolverine bowl, but there’s a lot uncertainty due to distance.

Weather: Coneys: 3/10/19-Early morning-orographic snow with no accumulation. As the day progressed clouds decreased to few clouds and overall calm. Warming trend.

Snowpack: Sierra Nevada like snow at Snodgrass on 3/9 and Coneys on 3/10. Last storm cycle may have left about 10 inches of settled snow at Coneys.
Snodgrass on 3/9: no collapsing or cracking on new skin tracks on slopes away from the main paths.
Coneys 3/10: no instabilities except some 2 inch rollers on lower slopes . Lower half of Coneys warmed up by 12 and became heavy. No instabilities on the ski down.
Tried to knock off 2 foot cornice on Convex Corner but was unsuccessful.
Photos:

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/09/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Quick post-storm obs
Aspect:
Elevation: 8600′-9600′

Avalanches:

A few below treeline slides on northerly aspects – two were small storm slabs in small repeater paths from January cycle. Two others were large in size and looked to have failed deeper in the snowpack. Two near treeline slides on Cement Mountains north side on drifted features- one D2 and another D2.5 which may have trimmed a few trees. Did not get good views into alpine terrain at the head of the valley.

Weather: Partly to mostly cloudy skies during the midday with low-level clouds moving in and out limiting visibility. Light winds at valley bottom without any visible transport noticed at upper elevations during periods of good visibility.

Snowpack: HS measurement at 9,600′ at valley bottom was an average of about 170cm. Top 75cm’s were storm snow since 2/28 with 4.6″SWE.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/09/2019
Name: Level 1

Subject: Snodgrass NE 9,900′
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9900′

Avalanches:

No recent activity seen.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies
warming temps
High winds on Mt Emmons transporting snow W-NW Wind with Southerly deposits, Wind non existent where we traveled.
No Precip

Snowpack: HS 230-250 cm New storm snow revealed instability between warmer snow on 3/8
Multiple instabilities seen in CT down 30-50 cm with 4F characteristics above interfaces
Down 150cm Q2 PC results observed in 1-2 mm Facets 1F slab above.
Strong Mid Pack
At ground we observed 4F-F layer with Depth Hoar

Persistent slab Identified and exists currently in our snowpack.

No direct signs of instability.
Photos: