Level 2 Profile. Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: Evan Ross/JSJ
Subject: Level 2 Profile. Snodgrass
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather: Broken sky becoming overcast in the mid afternoon. S1 snow starting around 230pm and increasing light to moderate winds. Snow trasnisined to rain as we drove into CB. Still light rain now at 6:30pm.
Snowpack:

20170210-Snodgrass-profile

Irwin Terrain

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2017
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject: Irwin Terrain
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather: Very Warm High 45F but not enough sun for a wet loose cycle. snow started around 14:30 S1
Snowpack:

Scarp Tour to Evans Basin

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: Paden/Pocock
Subject: Scarp Tour to Evans Basin
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,500-12,200

Avalanches: Evidence of an older windslab, D1.5, pulled out below SE-E Gunsight into Evans basin, Feb 6th crust?, and another old crown D1.5 lower down on East face
Weather: SCT skies turned OVC @ 1330. Warm temps (45* @ study plot) and sustained strong SW winds, w/ peak gust ~74mph @ Scarp Ridge station…Felt it on Gunsight! Thankfully “R” started in town after our tour @ 1530.
Snowpack: Ridge walk was a mixture of windboard, windpack, suncrusts, rocks and grass. Strong SW winds blew the old graupel around and made for decent skinning if you stayed below the top of the ridge where the suncrust was mostly slick and locked up. Rollerballs on E/SE terrain by 1300. Snow warmed quickly as we descended into more sheltered terrain @1245, eventually (and unfortunately!) found the super schmo down low

CBAC Snodgrass Study Plot Snowpit

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: Arden Feldman
Subject: CBAC Snodgrass Study Plot Snowpit
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9760

Avalanches: Some more wet loose avalanches observed on various aspects.
Weather: Warm temps, air temp of 7.5 degrees C at 1 PM. Broken skies with light to moderate winds during the day gave way to overcast skies and light snow with moderate winds and strong gusts around 3 PM.
Snowpack: See Profile.

February-10th-Snodgrass-Pit

Pinwheels and Persistant Slabs

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: Zach K
Subject: Pinwheels and Persistant Slabs
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9200ft -10,900ft

Avalanches: None observed.
Weather: Warm, temps in the mid 40s. Light-Moderate WSW winds BTL. Strong winds ATL with little to no snow transport. Increasing clouds and s-1 above 10,000ft and light rain below 10,000ft.
Snowpack: Toured into lower Wolverine Basin. Moist upper snowpack even on northerlies where pinwheels up to 14″ in diameter were observed rolling off 35 + deg terrain near trees and cliff bands.

On a NE aspect, 31 deg. slope at 10,800ft CT22 and CT24 Sudden Collapses @60cm on decomposing SH.

On an E aspect, 34 deg. slope at 10,900ft ECT28 Sudden Planar @65 cm on decomposing SH. F+ – 4F+ slab over this layer.

1/19 SH layer now buried 60-65 cm still reactive and showed propagation in this zone.

IMG_2874

Warm Temps

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: ADB
Subject: Warm Temps
Aspect: North
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: Skied wintery snow on northern aspect with no instabilities.

Rollers would pop off skin tracks on most aspects. West aspects on ski traverse out, kicked off rollers BTL. Observed considerable rollers on both east and west aspects emanating from all rock outcrops and cliffs at BTL.
Weather: Pretty warm, above freezing even on windy ridgeline. Scattered skies with moderate winds, however consolidated snow was not transported even on ridge line at NTL.
Snowpack:

Explosive trigered slides in areas not affected by skier traffic

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/09/2017
Name: Bill McGrath
Subject: Explosive trigered slides in areas not affected by skier traffic
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9650

Avalanches: Multiple explosive triggered avalanches on closed and un-skied aspects.

The Indian Trail had a AE-SS-R4-D2 that slid on the January 19th hoar frost layer. This slide had a large propagation and jumped multiple spines.

Roosters had 2 separate AE-SS-R3-D2 slides on the January 19th hoar frost layer.
Weather: Sunny with temperatures above freezing with light wind.
Snowpack:

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 02/10/2017

Warm, moist southwest flow will be moving into Colorado on the tail of an exiting high pressure ridge. We’ll see cloud cover and gusty winds increase through the day under unseasonably warm temperatures as the next Pacific system takes aim. Snowfall begins around sunset, and I use that term loosely. The freezing level will be hovering near or just above town, so precipitation may fall as graupel, slop, or the R word. The mountains should pick up 5″ or so of dense snow overnight. Thankfully a cold front is forecast to swing through on Saturday, boosting cold snow production with another half foot of snow or more.

Today

High Temperature: 42
Wind Speed: 15-25, G50
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 10-20, G40
Wind Direction: SW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 4-7″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 30
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Overcast
Snow: 5-7″

Touchy surface hoar

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2017
Name: Jake
Subject: Touchy surface hoar
Aspect: North East
Elevation: NTL

Avalanches: Toured up Axtell today. Got a number of D1 and a D2 sized slides to run from the ridge. Crowns ranged from 20-60cms and ran on our dear ol friend SH (up to 2cms). The slides seemed not to entrain anything of note below the stauchwalls. Slabs were 1F to 4F. Digging into the bed surface a little revealed the next SH, also up to 2cms in size below 15 cms of 1F. Very reactive.
Weather:
Snowpack:

Coney’s

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/09/2017
Name: Arden Feldman
Subject: Coney’s
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 10,600

Avalanches: Many small natural wet loose avalanches on steep southerly aspects, even saw some on a northwest aspect below tree line running off some cliffs. No slab avalanches observed on Schuylkill Ridge or the surrounding mountains.
Weather: Warm temps and light winds. Clouds decreasing through the day with few clouds by the afternoon.
Snowpack: Snow surfaces on east aspects below tree line had a very thin crust in some places but were generally relatively dry in the afternoon. Snow surfaces on west aspects below tree line seemed to have received more warming and were wet down to a couple of cm’s, likely due to the decreasing clouds through the day. On a northeast aspect below tree line the 1/19 interface was 75 cm down and had an obvious large surface hoar layer. The top 25 cm’s of the slab were entirely graupel. An ECT did not produce any results in the first 30 taps, but after removing some of the slab below the shovel it fully propagated with one more hard tap.

Wet-Loose
Graupel