Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 04/01/2018
Name: Evan Ross, Ian Havlick

Subject: Cool in the alpine and not so cool down low
Aspect: North, North East, South East, South, North West
Elevation: 9,800-13,200

Avalanches:

Several Loose wet avalanches up to D2, mostly on northerly facing slopes at near treeline elevations. Schuylkill Ridge NE aspect NTL elevation Wl-N-R1-D1.5/2 X4. Upper Slate River Northeast aspect 10,000ft WL-N-R1-D1.5 X3. Bottom of Climax Chutes WL-N-R1- D1.5 X2 East aspect BTL. A couple D1 WL avalanches on southerly facing slopes below 11,000ft. One skier triggered WL avalanche D1.5 in SE aspect of Red Lady Bowl.

Weather: Party Cloudy sky. Sunburn. Moderate westerly winds at upper elevations. Warm temps.
Snowpack: Spend most of the day above treeline dealing with a cold snowpack. Ski pen was on the 0 to 10cm range from south to north facing aspects. North to east facing aspects had some nice creamy snow on the surface, or wind-board and sun effect. South facing slopes stayed cold were they were exposed to the wind, and softened in the sun were they were protected from the wind. No avalanche concerns encountered at these upper elevations. Skiing a protected south aspect at 2pm had wonderful spring softened snow above 11,000ft, but below the snowpack became punchy and wet. Didn’t produce much for wet avalanches but the snowpack below 11,000ft didn’t feel inviting to linger around to see what could happen. See photos for profiles on south and north aspects.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/31/2018
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Gothic La Cuchara
Aspect: South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9400-12600

Avalanches:

Evidence of small D1 in upper Spoon from yesterday’s skiers. Initiated off turn, gained surprising amount of mass given how little surface snow was available to entrain. Also saw evidence in the major westerly gully of a decent sized wet loose avalanche that must have ran several days ago as it has a light dusting of snow on the debris. D2, would have been a nasty entrainment.

Weather: Scattered skies, cold WNW wind 10-15mph, steady. Temperatures were quite mild when out of the breeze.
Snowpack: Snowpack at lower elevations continues to consolidate and remain very supportable with minimal ski pen <11,500. Ski crampon snow gave way to good boot packing, supportive with 20cm boot pen into series of melt freeze/rain crusts. Snow booting up the Spoon was corn that didn’t know it was corn. Spring-like snow surface, but still very much cold, faceted junk below. No slab present however. No fresh windslab evident. Snow softened on south facing terrain between 10-11am, not sure west facing every got a good thaw above 11,500ft today with overcast skies developing.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/30/2018
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Peeler Tour
Aspect: North East, East, South, South West
Elevation: 12,200ft to 8,900ft

Avalanches:

A number of loose snow avalanches in the Ruby Range. Wet on southerly slopes and dry on northerly slopes. All D1 to D1.5. A cornice failed naturally on the East Face of Mt Owen at about 4:30pm. Entraining more snow with it and getting close to a D2 given the size of the terrain. A number of backcountry users were skiing aggressively without any significant results.

Weather: Strong westerly winds and snow plums in the alpine. Winds increased in the afternoon but snow plums decreased.
Snowpack: Late and quick afterwork tour. Ruff and variable snow surface conditions. Some good soft snow surfaces out there but lots of refrozen or wind effected snow surfaces. No sluffing and not much for fresh wind-load to be concerned with. Avalanche issues felt isolated and stubborn.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/30/2018
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Climax Chutes
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9000-11300

Avalanches:

no new avalanches observed, though saw a few wet loose dribblers

Weather: Partly cloudy skies clouded up slightly in afternoon to nearly broken. Very warm temperature on car thermometer at 1500 was 46º, but off the road in the hills was likely upper 30s. WNW Winds we gusty 20-30mph gusts near treeline.
Snowpack: Snowpack continues its spring transition with these warm days at lower elevations but not much warming near treeline with cold wind and late afternoon cloudiness. Poor structure remains, and the shallower instability was reactive with extended column test (ECTP23) at 11,300ft, NE facing near CB. The deeper, scary depth hoar buried near the ground (100cm deep), remains cold, sharp-angled and unconsolidated. Minimal wind slab development in the near treeline ridgeline I traveled, though snow was blowing. Lower elevations at 1430 were becoming push-a-lanchy in the old, rain-saturated transformed snow once last night’s refreeze broke down.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/29/2018
Name: ZDK

Subject: Wolverine Basin
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,000′-11,400′

Avalanches:

SS-N-R1-D2-I/O East aspect ~11,800′ Shallow wind/storm slab ran off of ridge and stepped down 1-2 feet lower in bowl(See picture)

Weather: SCT-BKN skies, S-1 snow showers off and on. Light-Mod. NW winds creating light transport on lee ridges/peaks. Temps hanging around 0C @ 11,000′
Snowpack: Soft, fairly dry snow on northerlies, variety of crusts on any sunny aspect.
Top of Right Chute, North aspect, 11,300′ HS 185 cm, mid pack was mostly rounded grains 4F-1F. Weak layer at ground was ~ 30cm of slightly moist, rounding DH that is still fragile(See picture).
~1cm Graupel layer 20cm from surface and a 1 cm MFcr @ 30 cm (3/23 interface) may be future weak layers.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/30/2018
Name: ADB

Subject: snow surveys-Slate River Watershed
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: BTL

Weather: CB Snow Course: party cloudy, calm, upper 40’s between 9 and 11 AM
Keystone Snow Course: partly cloudy, light winds, upper 40’s around 12 PM.
Snowpack: Crested Butte Snow Course by Mike’s Mile: trace of new snow/24 hours-graupel
depth at 12 sample points ranged between 0 inches to 31 inches
SWE (snow water equivalent) = 6 inches of water in the snowpack by the Slate River
Keystone Snow Course: 0 inches of new snow/24 hours
depth at 5 sample points ranged between 22 and 31 inches
SWE (Snow water equivalenet) = 8 inches of water in the snowpack at the bottom of Red Lady Glades.
Winter snow in shade.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/30/2018
Name: Cam and Tyler

Subject: Gothic Mtn
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: 9,500-12,500

Avalanches:

Had some notable wet sluffing near the top around 1p.m. Triggered by first skier in the center of the bowl after a few turns. Ran about 10 ft wide for 600 vertical feet. Maybe 1-3 inches deep.

Weather: Winds were calm down low and increased to 30ish mph up high.
Snowpack: On West faces the snow surface was locked up between 10,000 and 11,000 ft before 11 a.m. As we got higher and later we could break through the crusts while bootpacking. Zero cracking, collapsing, or signs of instability. Not even rollerballs until we dropped in the S face in the afternoon.

Photos: