Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/27/2018
Name: Cam

Subject: Southerlies
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 11,000-12,400 ft

Avalanches:

Observed one avalanche on an East face in Elk Basin beneath the old mining road. 50 ft wide ran about 150 ft. Too far away to tell anything else, but it appeared fairly fresh. Several recent point releases were visible on steep East facing terrain.

Weather: -14F leaving the car 9,000 ft at 0800 hrs.
Warmed up as we climbed and the day went on. Around 25 degrees F by the afternoon.
20-30 mph winds from the W above treeline throughout the morning. Not a cloud in the sky.
Snowpack: HS generally between 40 and 70 cm below ridgetops. Facets at the ground, a solid crust 20-30cms from the ground, and unconsolidated soft snow on top.
Shallow windslabs in cross-loaded terrain acted like they wanted to move, but there wasn’t enough energy there. The 2-3 inches from Friday was sitting happily in areas below treeline and in basins. On the ridges and up high it was scoured off.
Skied southerlies up to 35 degrees without any signs of instability. Direct south faces were thin but supportive.
Ski pen- 10 cm Boot pen- deep

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/27/2018
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Soft and Quiet
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9,400-12,390

Avalanches:
Weather: Didn’t take any official air temps, but it sure was a cold day. Clear sky started increasing in the afternoon. Mostly calm to light winds below 12,000ft ridgeline. Moderate westerly winds at ridgeline. Snow plumes on the high points around the range.
Snowpack: Quiet and not much going on as it relates to avalanche problems. About 3 to 6″ HST from the last storm. Evidence of drifting but didn’t encounter any windslab issues in this terrain. Didn’t encounter any worrisome persistent slab structure.

On a northeasterly aspect at 11,500ft. Kicked off one very small cornice chuck that sluffed down steep 40 degree terrain gouging into a weak snowpack and sluffing down hill. The sluff rode up higher in the snowpack on lower angled (mid 30 degree) portions of the slope.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/25/2018
Name: Zachary Treisman

Subject: Remote trigger near Pittsburgh
Aspect: North West
Elevation: About 10,000

Avalanches:

R2 d2 approx 70′ wide crown about 2ft deep slid in a path I’ve heard called iron curtain on the lookers left side of the north facing bowl above Pittsburgh. Probably remote triggered by our party of four out in the flats a good 100 yards away from the slope. I’ve never seen a remote trigger that far away but we had a big whoomph and a couple seconds later the slope slid. Bare rock was visible in the start zone. Nobody was caught – everyone in the area was far enough from the bottom of the slope.

Weather: Partly sunny

Snowpack: Thin and sketchy

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/24/2018
Name: Irwin Cat Operation

Subject: Snow Safety team report

Avalanches:

no new avalanche observations but did start to see rollerballs after 1500 on below
treeline, southerly steep terrain.

Weather: quite cold morning warmed by midday. high temperature at study plot 33. calm
conditions at all elevations.
Snowpack: Snowpack continues to settle, facet, and moisten below treeline late in the day.
Assessment in untravelled, alpine, west facing crossloaded gullies showed snowpack no deeper than 80cm,
consistently faceted 4F- hardness, and no significant layering. 3 handshots were unreactive.
Some rollerballs on steeper south and southwest facing terrain late in the day.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/24/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett

Subject: Middle Brush Creek, still shallow and collapsing
Aspect: North, South East, South, West, North West
Elevation: 9,000-12,300′

Avalanches:

Triggered one small D1 facet slough on a steep, rocky thin slope on a northwest aspect at 11,500′. Observed one recent D2 persistent slab avalanche on an east aspect at 10,800′ that failed to ground. See photos.

Weather: Gentle day, partly cloudy w/ high thin clouds. Cool temps and light westerly winds.

Snowpack: This was a trip into a radically weaker snowpack than what I’ve seen in the Western part of the CBAC forecast area lately. The overall snowpack seemed very similar to Paradise Divide in early December. HS averaged 40-50cm, entire weak. Snowmobiles trenched to ground w/ any throttle. Skis were barely supportive climbing, but it was easy to open the trap doors with any tip pressure skiing down. We experienced rampant collapsing and slope scale cracking in any open terrain on sleds or skis. No cracking observed in forested or rocky areas with a perforated/anchored snowpack.

Photos:

facet sloughing in steep northwesterly terrain

snow coverage in Cumberland Basin

a recent D2 persistent slab avalanche off Teo Ridge, east aspect, 10,800′.

one of dozens of shooting cracks crossing meadows

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2018
Name: Steve Banks

Avalanches:

No new avalanches, but further evidence from this weekends cycle. Numerous D2’s mostly on NE aspects NTL. Not as many in the alpine, but maybe ran earlier and got filled in?

Weather: bluebird with strong solar. Temps stayed cold, around 20F as a high. Calm winds increased to mod gusts in the afternoon. Some plumes off the peaks.

Snowpack: 6-8” new snow over older 1F snow and 2” thick P hard suncrusts. Crusts were found on steeper solar aspects but not on anything less than 25 degrees. Sun was just beginning to affect some sheltered areas BTL. Intermittent Basel facets in shady sheltered areas.
Noticeable thin wind crust developing throughout the day with loading from the NW. Skin track got completely blown in from one lap to the next and noticeable wind whales forming on SE facing alpine slopes.