Wind and warm (again)

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/19/2016
Name: jsj
Subject: Wind and Warm (again)
Aspect: North, North East, South, South West
Elevation: 9-10,800

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear, Warm, winds Mod to Strong with gusts throughout the day from the WSW
Snowpack: Snow surfaces a mix of Knife hard wind polished white ice; Fist hard soft, wind affected or wind deposited powder; or moist surfaces where exposed to sun. No new instabilities or avalanche activity seen in the range as of 1300.

Anthracite Mesa-Coneys

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/19/2016
Name: ADB
Subject: Anthracite Mesa-Coneys
Aspect: North East, East, West
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: No recent activity. no cracking collapsing, or whumping on skin track except on valley bottom.
Weather: Clear, light winds.
Snowpack: sun crusts on SE slopes. A few rollers.
East and NE slopes had wintry snow. Ridgeline had 2 inch wind slabs intermittently.

Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/19/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Snodgrass
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 11,100-9,400 ft

Avalanches: See photo below of Mt Axtell slide first observed yesterday by JSJ.
Weather: Clear, moderate N valley winds with some small plumes observed on a few peaks near East Maroon Pass. Warm temps.
Snowpack: ~4-8″ of dry, settled powder over 3/14 crust layer, well bonded. Snow became more wind-affected, with soft sastrugi and denser wind drifts towards valley bottom. No signs of instability.

Recent natural slide on Mt. Axtell, NE aspect ATL, above Green Lake.

Recent natural slide on Mt. Axtell, NE aspect ATL, above Green Lake.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/19/2016

We are under dry northwest flow today, with a low pressure system over the Mid-West and a high pressure ridge advancing our way across the Great Basin. Winds will relax a few notches and temperatures will climb a few more degrees compared to yesterday. This trend continues through the weekend. Looking ahead, a Pacific system impacts our mountains on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Today

High Temperature: 33
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Clear
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 38
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Clear
Snow: 0

Wind and Warm

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/18/2016
Name: JSJ
Subject: Wind and Warm
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,000-10,800′

Avalanches: Green Lake Bowl cornice looks to have fallen at some point today, triggering a D2.5 sized slide, but was hard to see well from town with afternoon shadows. No other instabilities seen on terrain up to 35*.
Weather: Mostly Clear, Warm, winds Mod to Strong with Extreme gusts throughout the day from the WSW
Snowpack: Big winds transporting snow and loading lee slopes, even BTL and crossroading terrain in valley bottoms.

CB Area

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: CB Area
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000-9,400

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds, light to moderate down valley winds with a few stronger gusts.
Snowpack: Morning sun and warm temps created hot pow/moist snow conditions down to the 3/13 interface. Traveled on slopes in the mid 20 degree range so the old snow surface was all firm melt freeze crusts. No instabilities or in this terrain.

Coneys

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Will
Subject: Coneys
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9,500-10,700

Avalanches:
Weather: Warm, dry and windy, Mostly cloudy with with periods of strong sun, mod winds out of the SW.
Snowpack: New storm snow from the prior storm was generally 10cm with snow drifts up to 40cm. Snow depth ranged in the 180 cm to 120 at around 10,000ft, E Aspect. The new snow is F hard compression test result of CTM12RPQ2. See Photos.

E-Aspect-NTL
CTM12PRQ2-Results

Big Wind and Warm

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: JSJ
Subject: Big Wind and Warm
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: 9,000-11,800′

Avalanches:
Weather: Increasing clouds, warm, winds Mod to Strong and increasing throughout the day from the WSW
Snowpack: Big winds transporting snow and loading lee slopes, even BTL. Cornice drop triggered storm slab path from yesterday completely filled back in today. Areas of open terrain scoured down to white ice / MF crusts. Skin track NTL / ATL re filling every 15 min.

Mountain Weather 3/18/16

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 03/18/2016

Gunnison County is splitting the boundary between active, jet-influenced weather to our north, and mild, sunny weather to our south. It looks like this pattern will stick around all day, with cloudier skies towards the northern end of our forecast zone and continued blustery winds. The jet stream finally packs its bags tonight, with skies clearing under dry but breezy northwest flow. High pressure bringing warm temperatures and lighter winds arrives on Sunday, allowing for open-wardrobe weather for the Al Johnson Race.

Today

High Temperature: 28
Wind Speed: 12-22, G40
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 12
Wind Speed: 8-18
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 32
Wind Speed: 10-20, G35
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Windy

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Windy
Aspect: South East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000 ft

Avalanches: Fresh natural wind slab ran today on SE face of Ruby Peak, potentially triggered by cornice fall, estimated about a foot deep on a mid-storm layer. SS-NC-R1-D1.5-S. Other crowns that failed yesterday or the night before shown below in photos.
Weather: Scattered clouds, moderate to extreme winds from the SW, and moderate snow transport.
Snowpack: Recent snow is blown out on most west and south aspects. Drifts up to 3′ on east aspects below ridgelines, that weren’t responsive to ski cuts. Stomping on small cross loaded wind whales further down slope caused some cracking and small 10″ pockets, failing on mid-storm layers.

NE aspect, Scarp Ridge

NE aspect, Scarp Ridge

NE aspect, Whetstone

NE aspect, Whetstone

NE aspect, Mt. Axtell

NE aspect, Mt. Axtell

SE aspect, Ruby Peak

SE aspect, Ruby Peak