Gothic Obs 7am

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/25/2016
Name: billy barr
Subject: Gothic Obs 7am
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather: There was 3″ new snow in the past 24 hours with 0.18″ of water. Not overly significant. Snow pack at 40½” and it has been hovering between 38-42″ most days of late. Cleared and cooling at sunrise today.
Snowpack: South facing slopes have developed a crust and steep south slopes were sloughing over the weekend- just point releases but picking up some snow on the way down so could be a problem again later in the week if it warms (highs were 36 and 37ºF Friday and Saturday). billy

Irwin Tenure

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/24/2016
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject: Irwin Tenure
Aspect: East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000

Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast with snow beginning around 09:00 but remained very light through the am hours, picked
up a little in the pm and started nuking around 16:00. Winds were SSW 20’s gusts to 42 mph. High
temps were 22F/14F. FX: 6-9” tonight, 2-4” tomorrow, 0-1” tomorrow Night, 0-1” Tuesday. Clearing
Tuesday afternoon with a couple clear warm days and then the next uncertain storm for Friday &
Saturday.
Snowpack: Well-settled and stable Snowpack. Crusts widespread on southerly aspects and west is dry. Ski Pen
20cm’s and no signs of instability. New interface is Jan 24th Interface. Some NSF’s (1-1.5mm) at this
interface but not very widespread or too large. Southerlies have crusty surface, some smooth crusts
and some with some tracks and natural roller balls.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/25/2016

Conditions will remain unsettled as residual orographic snow showers and northwesterly winds persist across higher elevations as a cold, northwesterly flow takes over. May see uptick in snow intensity and coverage as one last ripple passes overhead this morning, looking like 1-3″ additional are all that can be expected. Mostly sunny and calm conditions with strong valley inversions will then dominate throughout the rest of the week with our next chance snowfall this next weekend with hints of a more significant snow event early next week. Still a long way out…

Today

High Temperature: 18
Wind Speed: 5-10
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 1-3″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 0
Wind Speed: 5-10
Wind Direction: N
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0-1″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 23
Wind Speed: 5-10
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0″

Pittsburgh Rollers

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/24/2016
Name: ADB
Subject: Pittsburgh Rollers
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: No cracking, whumping, or collapsing on skin track or on ski down.
Weather: Mixed bag of weather:
At Trailhead, S2 snowfall but snow stopped very quickly. Mostly cloudy at the rollers with intermittent periods of S-1 to S1. One 15 minute period of light winds with no wind transport. On hike out along Slate River, again hit a short spell of S1 with snow falling sideways. Snow on ground was not being transported.
Snowpack: Appeared to be less than 1cm of graupel on entire skin track leading from Poverty Gulch Bridge to top of rollers. Ski pole test showed up to 105 cm of snow from last weeks storms.

Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/24/2016

Look for cloud ceilings to lower over the high peaks by sunrise, and accumulating snow to fall by mid morning. Gusty winds and snow should continue until about midnight, though favorable northwest orographics could keep light snow going over higher terrain into Monday morning. Total snow accumulations look to range between 4-8”, though the usual suspects in the Kebler and Paradise Divide zones could approach 12” when the storm finally clears out. Winds will be similar to our last storm, with strong southwest winds swapping to the northwest around 3-4pm when the cold front passes, producing near whiteout conditions at times. Calmer conditions fill in behind the front for early next week, with another possible storm Saturday.

Today

High Temperature: 23
Wind Speed: 15-20 G40
Wind Direction: SW, NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 3-6″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 2-4″

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 18
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0-2″

Snodgrass Profile

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2016
Subject: Snodgrass Profile
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9,400-10,800
Snowpack: We went to Snodgrass to look at the structure of the snow on southerly aspects. On southeast through southwest aspects, top 3 cm of snow was developing a melt-freeze crust. Some eastern aspects were also developing a thin crust. Our ECT propagated at the Jan. 14 interface about 30 cm deep (ECTP12, SC).

Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2016
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Snodgrass
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,400-10,800

Avalanches:
Weather: Few clouds through most of the day, increasing in the afternoon around 3pm. Calm wind. 39F air temp at 10,700ft at 2pm.
Snowpack: -5cm moist snow forming a new MFcr crust on all sunny slopes traveled, generally steeper then 25-30 degrees. SH was being melted back by todays sun, on isolated to the lower elevation valleys. Shaded easterly slopes felt faceted on the surface, or a completely weak snowpack on steeper slopes that avalanched back in Christmas.

Each group felt a collapse approaching pit location on SE slopes. At 10,700, SE aspect, 25 degrees, HS 80cm, ECTPM SC X2 down 30cm on the 1/14 interface. Crust over thicker facet layer transitioning into the decaying Christmas Slab. Didn’t travel much on this aspect in avalanche terrain, so these pits where the only observations gathered for this aspect.

Coney’s

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2016
Name: Dave Bumgarner
Subject: Obs at Coney’s
Aspect: North
Elevation: 10800

Avalanches: Saw some small D1 avalanches on Schuylkill in the Chiquita Bowl Area from the store slab.
Weather: Overall pleasant day, sunny, no wind just at the freezing point.
Snowpack: No signs of instability during my tour Dug a pull Profile near the ridge in 1st bowl (attached). Saw some moderate CT results at a layer at 70 cm.

Coneys-First-Bowl-Pit

Wolverine

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/23/2016
Name: ADB
Subject: Wolverine
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Avalanches: A few 4 foot cracking associated with skin track, but nothing else.
Slides from the recent storm cycle. On bottom of north ridge, for example: HS-N-R4-D2 on a short 75 foot slope. Saw other recent slides in the area. Saw debris in Wolverine but didn’t see the start zone from the ridge line.
Weather: Mostly sunny. Calm
Snowpack: Up to 16 inches of settled snow from recent snowfall this week (last snow was Wednesday). Faceted snow on lower 800 feet down to cross country groomed track. Surface facets less than 1 cm forming throughout snowpack up to the north ridge of Mt. Emmons.