Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/13/2018
Name: Chris Martin

Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9,000′ – 11,500′

Avalanches:

Weather: Clear, sunny skies throughout the morning. 4C around 10-11 am near valley bottom. High clouds throughout midday steadily increasing as timed passed. Warm temps but not enough warmth to feel good about quality skiing in the Bowl. Calm winds gusting down valley.

Snowpack: HS 135cm @ 11500'. Persistent slab structure is present in this spot on a S aspect but healing. Hardness: 4F-1F-4F-P (Top to bottom). Bottom 20 cm is comprised of facets with 5 cm @ ground frozen pencil hard. Snow surfaces from valley bottom to RLG existing as MF/Cr varying in thickness. A good freeze last night revealed these crusts being thicker down low. No cracking, collapsing or avalanches observed today.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/12/2018
Name: Kreston Rohrig

Subject: Wolverine Basin
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9000′ – 11600′

Avalanches:

A large cornice fall avalanche was observed in Redwell Basin. It appeared to be recent, but hard to pin down the exact date.
Redwell Basin >TL-NE-C-N-R1-D1.5

Weather: A warm day despite the scattered cloud cover. Temps and solar input were significant enough to wet most snow surfaces that weren't sheltered or directly north facing.

Snowpack: Below treeline, the snowpack is weak and faceted in most areas. It was easy to probe to the ground as HS ranged from 80-120cm. Any aspect not protected or facing directly north up to 11000'was cooking and wet. Later in the day as the surface cooled, crusts were starting to form. Pit profile attached at 11600' on a NE facing slope below the north ridge of Wolverine Basin. Mid and upper layer slabs are consolidating into a stiff structure that is insulating the weak facets and DH near the ground. Weak snow in this area is still 4F to fist hard, but becoming more difficult to initiate a failure. ECTX PST end 45/100 Above treeline the start zones in this area were mostly scoured out and thin. A few lingering wind slabs looked to have formed midway down the paths.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2018
Name: Karin Pocock/Billy Rankin

Subject: Level 2 Avy Course Tour days Sat/Sun
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,400′ – 11,100′

Avalanches:
Weather: Sat: Partly cloudy, L-M breeze from the NW, cool to start the day, then temps warm enough to moisten snow surfaces below 10,200ft in the afternoon.
Sun: High clouds throughout the day. No wind. Warming temps during the day. A solid refreeze had occurred overnight leaving a variable thickness mfcr up to 3cm in places that did not noticeably soften until 11:30am.
Snowpack: HS 80-120cm. Several pits dug by each touring group each day. Overall, very few signs of instability notes while skiing: no cracking or collapsing, no new avalanches noted. Pits consistently showed a 65-80cm persistent slab 4F-P in hardness sitting on 20-40cm of 4F FC/DH up to size 4. On the most northerly aspects that we looked at the midpack slab was more facetted and tended towards 1F at it’s hardest.
All pits showed roughly the same tests results on both days:
CT’s 12 thru 22 SC dwn 80 failing on DH size 4.
ECTX
PST 20-35/100 end dwn 80 failing on DH size 4.

We consistently showed the definition of “spooky moderate” to our students, few signs of instability while traveling and skiing coupled with pit tests that indicated the construction for avalanches that would be dangerous to skiers if triggered.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2018
Name: Ross Matlock

Subject: Level 1 avalanche course tour day
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,400′-11,100′

Avalanches:
Weather: High clouds throughout the day. No wind. Warming temps during the day.
Snowpack: HS varied between 50cm 120cm, very aspect related. The persistent slab structure is present on the northerly aspects on Snodgrass but weakening. Hasty pits revealed moderate to hard results failing from a melt freeze crust mid to lower pack or failing at the depth hoar, ground level. The upper snow pack is trending toward rounding facets. No cracking, collapsing or instabilities were found today.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/10/2018
Name: Karin, Level 2 Avalanche Course

Subject: Level 2 Avalanche Course
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9800-10300

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: It’s the same as it always is with a slightly denser slab on top…where ever there is skiing ie E, NE, there are limited signs of instability while touring, but pit tests have scat results indicative of significant destructive avalanches being possible. 9800-10300 NE [ have been able to repeat these results all over the place..ie these are consistent) CT(22) SC down 80 size 4 DH…ECTX…PST 20-35/100 end down 65-80 on either FC size 2 or DH size 4 depending on location

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/11/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett

Subject: two great days w/ the Choice Pass program, Snodgrass and Mt. Emmons

Weather: High thin clouds slowed warm up Saturday and Sunday, but it’s happening. Temps eeking above freezing at 11,000′, but crushing into the 40’s in the valley floors.
Snowpack: Definitely a line in the snow out there. Dry or wet.
At around due east or just north of east if the terrain is steeper, you can still find dry snow so long as the sun hasn’t kissed it. Shade is key right now for any hope of dry snow. Even lower-angled northerly terrain that doesn’t have a blocking ridge above is getting kissed and crusted. Snow surfaces on these shady aspects are gaining strength, though the weak layers below just don’t have enough overburden to change much at all. Surprisingly the depth hoar is still 4-Finger stiff and the grains are still crisp and sharp-edged. The weak layer structure is clearly not very different from a week ago, though the slabs are stiffening and clearly stubborn to human triggering. You still won’t find me center-punching 40+ degree near treeline right now, unfortunately. I’d like to see the weak layers get stronger / stiffer before really laying it out there.
On the other side of the line, snow surfaces on steep south aspects wetted Sunday up to near treeline. Below 11,000′ we found mud, dust, areas with 20-60cm of isothermal (wet all the way through) mush, and remnant dry snow – essentially very mixed bag and few continuous patches of dry weak layers remain between southeast and west below 11,000′. But above there, it’s still a dry snowpack even on the sunny side, though that dry snowpack is topped with a few cm of melt forms or crust depending on the time of day. Weak layers below still haven’t changed under the influence of water yet.
Only in very thin, and steep spots could I find water percolating more than 5-10cm from the surface, in most places the free water is still held in the top 5cm above 11,000′.