Goooooood

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2017
Subject: Goooooood
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: atl,tl,btl

Avalanches: several sluffs out of south, northeast and north aspects. Small avalanche on southwest aspect (see photo)
sluffs ran a long ways (800-1000 feet) but never entrained lower snowpack. One sluff on northeast aspect even started in steeper terrain and rolled down the gut of a gully for 800 feet still moving on a pitch that was maybe 25 degrees
Weather: overcast, zero wind even on ridge top
Snowpack: ski pen 10-14″, surface hoar forming

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Snodgrass/Gothic obs

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2017
Name: Peter Innes
Subject: Snodgrass/Gothic obs
Aspect: North East, South West
Elevation: 10,000′

Avalanches: None. Some buried debris faintly visible on E apron of Gothic Mt, but have not seen any obvious crowns.
Weather: Light snow tapering to overcast w/ some brief cloud breaks causing gloppy snow
Snowpack: SW aspect BTL (10,000′), 25º, above Gothic townsite: HS 200cm, right side up, ECTN

NE aspect BTL 10,000′), 32º, on Snodgrass: HS 250cm, right side up, ECTN

No sign of buried surface hoar in either profile. Did not dig to ground but snowpack was quite uniform and showed solid structure in both cases, with about 20cm F hardness on top of 4F and 3F down to ~150cm depth (did not dig past this).

In the NE profile, aggressive shovel shear following ECTN caused slab failure 100cm down but was Q3 shear at best…this poor shear may have been due to difficulty isolating the column at that depth though.

No signs of instability in terrain traveled.

Mountain Weather 1/15/2017

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/15/2017

A generally quiet day of weather is on tap for the Crested Butte area today as the wandering cut-off low pressure system flirts with the Arizona/Mexico border, spinning one last ripple of moisture our direction. This moisture will bring cloud cover and an increased chance of light snow showers to our forecast area this afternoon and evening. Look for high temperatures at 11,000ft in the 32º range and light winds out of an unusual east-southeasterly direction at ridgetop. The week ahead looks dry and sunny, with our next chance of snow and another stormy period arriving Thursday through next weekend.

Granite Creek and Round Mountain

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2017
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Granite Creek and Round Mountain
Aspect: North, West, North West
Elevation: 9500-11800

Avalanches: lots of D1 wet loose sluffing in steep terrain, both natural and off ski turns.
observed a few partially buried crowns from earlier in week, visibility remained limited to get longer distance observation of bigger terrain.
Weather: S2 snow tapered by 1130am, then overcast and fog, eventually clearing up to broken skies 1430. Winds were light to calm. temperatures increased from mid 20s to mid 30s by 1500.
Snowpack: Generally solid and deep with HS averaging 120-150cm, increasing with elevation. Did find reactive 4mm SH and basal facets in profile 9800ft, protected meadow, where you’d expect to find surface hoar if it was gonna be there. CT12 on SH, and CT14 on basal facets.

Dug again on more northerly, near treeline meadow and found very rightside-up snowpack with density increasing with depth. Boot pen here was about 60cm. Most concerning place to trigger a slide is margins, and places made shallow by wind scouring.

Surface snow, upper 2″ that fell during morning had interesting preserved stellars that failed easily and produced surprisingly high-speed and pushy wet loose sluffing that was worth avoiding get hit by on descent.

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Explosive triggered slab

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations, Gallery

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2017
Name: NA
Subject: Explosive triggered slab
Aspect: North West
Elevation: ATL

Avalanches: See photo
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Cement Creek Ob

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2017
Name: ADB
Subject:
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: Observed numerous loose snow slides below every rock outcrop and cliff on 1/13 on south/SE/SW slopes. Observed one W/SW slope near Deadman CG where entire slope was covered with loose snow slides.

on 1/14, started a slough on S/SW slope that ran about 500 feet.

None of these releases would injure someone. Some may partially bury you if caught on the road.
Weather: Obscured skies and calm transitioning to mostly cloudy.
Snowpack: new snow: 2.5 cm (1 inch)/24 hours and 17.5 to 22.5 cm (5 to 7 inches)/48 hours on SW aspects, two sun crusts in upper 7.5 cm of pack.

Sluffing and storm slab at Irwin

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2017
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Sluffing and soft slab at Irwin
Aspect: South East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-11,800 ft

Avalanches: Widespread, shallow sluffing (L-AS/N-R1-D1-S) on slopes steeper than ~38 degrees, all aspects. Skier triggered soft slab on west aspect NTL, ~15″ deep, failed on precip particles. (SS-AS-R1-D1.5-S)
Weather: S-1 to S1 and overcast most of the day. Calm winds. High of 34 in the afternoon, and brief solar breaks with greenhouse affect.
Snowpack: 3″ last night, 2″ today. Low density, new snow became more cohesive due to green housing in the afternoon.
Hand shots and airblasts in previously trafficked and/or mitigated terrain produced no results

SS-AS-R1-D1.5-S. W aspect NTL.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/14/2017

The closed low over Baja continues to spin moisture into the Elk Mountains under tame winds. As the low shifts towards Texas, flow direction becomes increasingly less favorable, so snowfall will diminish. A weak ridge of high pressure arrives early next week: Our first break in active weather in over 2 weeks.

Red Lady Glades

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Will
Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9000-11000

Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast with a break in the clouds around 1400 which produced a large amount of solar, light winds and snow flurriesy
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS:
No Avalanche activity was seen, no signs of any instability, whoompfing or cracking. HS 223cm, boot pen 63cm, ski pen 35cm. Air temp -4*C Surface -6*C T20 -8*C. Slope angle 25* at 10,800 SE The new snows interfaces where easily found with a shovel tilt test, with little resistance and a planer surface. The Jan 1st interface as 109cm with an CT that resulted: CT22Q345cm From the surface down 120 had a hardness of F 4F 1F. See Photo:

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Cement Creek

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Ian Havlick/Evan Ross
Subject: Cement Creek
Aspect: North, West, North West
Elevation: 9000-10500

Avalanches: no new avalanches observed, looked hard, did see evidence of several S-SE facing slopes and gullies. Faint crowns and buried debris. looks like these slides slid early this week.

Big paths on Italian, Cement, etc were difficult to see due to lingering fog/clouds, but no obvious crowns.
Weather: Overcast but gradually clearing most the afternoon, with one light snow shower toward sunset. Calm winds. Temps in mid 20s.
Snowpack: Quite impressive. snowpack averages 150-200cm. Generally solid, rightside up. Dug one profile on W facing slope at 10,300 (BTL). Revealed solid structure with old snow/New Years storm interface gaining strength. ECT produced no results, and slab finally failed cleanly, but stubbornly on aggressive shovel shear after ECT test.

No signs of instabilities in terrain travelled.

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