Avalanches:
Weather: Calm to light NW, Intense Solar, cold in shade
Snowpack: No signs of instability even with 5 people tromping along together. Skied slopes up to 35*
SW, 31*, 10,240ft 2 pits 50 m apart
HS 100cm
ECTP15 @ 36cm in both pits. crust-facet-crust combo. Same layer & results as yesterdays pits on S aspect @ 10,200 on snodgrass.
Storm snow well bonded to crust that became moist & thick

NE 40* 5 people stomping through a road cut & punching through the full snowpack depth of 100cm @ 9,600 with no results. storm snow ~30cm from last couple days well bonded to facets forming the midpack. 3-4mm depth hoar at bottom.

Avalanches: Natural soft slabs in Evans Basin (D1.5, SE aspect ATL). Ruby Peak (D2, SE aspect ATL and D1, S aspect ATL), Axtell (D1, NE aspect NTL), and Purple Peak (D2.5, S to SE aspect ATL). Most looked like wind slabs failing on or above yesterday’s storm interface. The slide on Purple probably failed on the Jan 14th crust/facet layer as a persistent slab. The larger slide on Ruby is tough to say.
Weather: Large plumes off of peaks this morning from northerly winds. Clear skies. Cold temps.
Snowpack: In Crested Butte Area: below treeline, shaded aspects, the Jan 14th facet layer remains unreactive in pits. The recent snow above it is the same hardness as the layer, both F+. We did encounter some denser, slabbier snow on open pitches that got hit by northerly winds. No signs of instability on steep terrain.

Ruby

Evans Basin

Avalanches: Observed 2 or 3 small natural sloughs that ran a few hundred vertical feet through the rocks beneath the large cornices at the summit; Observed a natural soft slab (50 feet wide, 200 feet vertical) on the South ridge of Coon; Triggered a small soft slab on the final rollover before the lap track (20 feet wide, 50 feet vertical, 8-10 inches thick); Between our first and second lap, a larger natural slough ran several hundred vertical feet and covered a fresh set of ski tracks lookers left side of the exposed rocks.
Weather: Bluebird sky, temperature around zero F, light NW winds at 7:30 becoming moderate NW winds at 9:00 with strong gusts.
Snowpack: Significant wind transported snow in the bowl with large cornices above the exposed rocks. Snow had a slightly punchy/grabby feel on the way down, but skied well and felt mostly stable. Be wary of isolated pockets in steeper terrain features.

Avalanches: Ruby SS-N-R2D2-U a second D2.5 also on the SE aspect of ruby.
Purple SS-N-R2D3-U/O
Visible natural on Afley also observed.D2 most likely.
Weather: ATL clear skies, calm winds out of the NW.
Moderate to strong winds from the NW on ridge tops of the ruby range were mostly sublimating.
Snowpack: 11″ storm total snow is drifted into developing wind slabs, small below treeline specific to convex rolls. The storm slabs from yesterday are staring to stiffen up.

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Avalanches: Lots of activity going on out there. Witnessed a point release either starting from a cornice or rock at the top of Red Lady Bowl that ran surprisingly far, almost to the first bench in the bowl. Ran about 5 minutes after sunrise. Also saw a skier-triggered crown on one of the last rollers in the bowl, looked like a soft wind slab around 8-12 inches thick, 10-15 ft wide, R1 D1. Saw many naturals, mostly on SE faces. Looked as though these slides failed on top of the crust from Tuesday’s (?) sunny weather. Crowns appeared to be around the 1-2 ft depth ranging from 30-50 ft wide. Largest natural was on the South side of Peeler Face, and this appeared to be an R2 or R3 slide, D2 at the very least. All others were in the R1-2 range and D2. Two crowns on SE faces of Evans Basin, two crowns SE face of Elk Basin, and then the previously mentioned Peeler. And an E-facing windloaded pocket below the roadcut at the bottom of the bowl ripped, I was told this was a repeat offender. Pictures coming to Facebook soon.
Weather: Cold in the morning with rapidly warming temperatures. Wind flagging present on many peaks with loading increasing to a consistent moderate snow transport on high ridgetops around 830 am. Winds out of the NW.
Snowpack: Around 6-12 inches of new snow depending on the slopes orientation to NW winds. Many areas windswept.

Avalanches: Widespread natural cycle on any steep slope greater than 30º, all slides D1, 10-20″ deep.
Weather: Moderate to heavy snow and wind all day. storm total sits at 11″ (.75″ water) and still snowing.
Snowpack: Very touchy storm slabs on all aspects and elevations including below treeline.

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