Irwin Tenure

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/22/2015
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject: Irwin Tenure
Aspect: South West, West
Elevation: 10,200-11,500

Avalanches: (3) D1-D2 slides triggered this afternoon.
SS-ASu-R2-D1-O
SS-AE-R3-D2-O
SS-AE-R2-D1.5-O

all on novemeber basal facets. slab 1F in places, F-Hardness on upper half
Weather: Nearly a foot overnight of 7%. Light to moderate west winds with a few stronger
gusts. Temps stayed in low to mid 20s. Clouds continued to obscure surrounding
backcountry. Moderate snow all day, heavy at times, especially after 1300 snow
intensified and wind stopped.
Snowpack: West: Generally soft and un-cohesive new snow just slightly slabbed up with good
cracking in the top 20cm’s on handshots in the morning. After lunch, snow
intensified and a route in Sunset on UWW produced three slides, one on each of the steeper features, all in previously lightly or un-travelled terrain “backcountry-like”
snowpack. Not many large collapses, or cracking, just isolated explosive results (2
avalanches, and one ski cut triggered slide that propagated 50ft above cut.

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Mountain Weather

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 12/22/2015

Overnight and through today we have all the ingredients of a major winter storm (the first of a series this week) coming together. The “left exit region” of a 160 knot jet stream will punch the Elk Mountains square in the nose, bringing significant upper level support to a cold, ultra saturated atmosphere hovering near seasonal extremes for moisture content. Add in 13,000 foot mountains for added lift and we have the makings of a doozy. Snow could be fairly dense, and the winds will average 10-20 mph but gust into the 50 mph range closer to timberline. Look for snow to taper tonight into tomorrow, only to intensify Wednesday afternoon through Christmas Day.

Anthracites (different ob)

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: MR
Subject: Anthracites
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 10,000-11,200

Avalanches: East bowl above happy ending, R1.5D1.5, no crown visible, only observed from the AMR parking lot. Appeared to be a wind/storm slab that released just below ridge and ran in the new snow, stopping on the bench above the last pitch. Didn’t appear to step down or propagate further. See pic.

Also a couple loose snow sluffs had released naturally and ran a short distance in tree and big chute.
Weather: Calm, intermittently broken skies to s2-3 snowfall. Most of the day felt warm, maybe 25F
Snowpack: Around 14 inches of storm snow from the last 36 hours of activity. Some drifting and wind lips but no other signs of slab formation in the new snow, besides east bowl avalanche noted below. No cracking or whumpfing. A couple loose snow sluffs had released naturally and ran a very short distance.

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Anthracite

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: EM
Subject: Anthracite
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 10,000 – 11,500

Avalanches: There appeared to be two or three small slides in east bowl. These slides appeared to start as loose sloughs that were able to produce a small amount of lateral propagation. All were r1d1. While snowmobiling back to Y noticed significant natural slide on lookers left side of Ruby. Maybe r3d2.
Weather: Light snow with moderate showers before noon. Very light winds with weak gusting. Some blue sky between noon and 2.
Snowpack: One site that was north facing at 10,900 had a depth of 140 cm. This location was mostly 4F density with fist storm snow above. CT 12,13 60 cm below surface. It appeared this failure occurred on buried SH from 12/11. This area also produced hard results on the lowest facet layer. CT 23,24 77 cm from surface. Tests generally showed Q2 shears. Slope angle at site was 32*
A south facing location at 11,000 showed a depth of 148 cm. The site receives sun during the bulk of the day but is shaded for part of day with trees. Profile showed a complex layering of facets and crusts for bottom 73 cm, 4 different facet crust combos. Above facet crust combos was 75 cm of new snow that has fallen since last Monday. Tests in this location showed no result for new snow old crust interface but showed moderate results CT 17,18 failing just above the lowest crust. Slope angle at site was 29*.

Didn’t experience any collapsing while skinning or skiing.

Irwin Snowcat Operation

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: Billy Rankin
Subject: Irwin Snowcat Operation
Aspect: West
Elevation: 10-12,000′

Avalanches: 3 triggered Avalanches today. 2 small D-1’s 30-50cm’s deep only running 30-50 feet and not propagating wide. One D-1.5 with a ski cut on a suspect 40 degree rocky roll. West aspect, at 11,000′ 70 cm’s deep, 100’wide, and ran 300′. SS-ASc-R3-D1.5-O on 3-4mm facets / DH.
At least 3 different naturals in the Ruby Range, Two 1.5 below the East facing cliffs in Robinson. One larger Natural on Ruby (ESE) 12,000, towards the saddle, very wide, several hundred feet probably 40-60cm’s deep, guessing D-2
Weather: 5″ new overnight, Storm board at 10″. Stormy in the morning though quickly calmed down and was a mostly calm weather day with only 1″ of additional throughout the day (mostly between 8 & 9 am) winds were strong from the SW this morning and decreased to light to Moderate. Temps remained cool in the 20’s with just a tiny bit of solar radiation mid day.
Snowpack: Shallow cracking and breaking up of the upper snowpack 10-20cm’s deep on 2lb handsets and some ski cuts. Displacing but not really running. No other signs of instability though we mostly were in previously worked or packed terrain.

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Remotely Trigger Slide – 2nd bowl coney’s

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: Dave Bumgarner
Subject: Remotely Trigger Slide – 2nd bowl coney’s
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10800

Avalanches: Remotely triggered slide R1D2 in 2nd bowl of Coney’s near the tree island. We were skiing in 1st bowl. On our 3rd lap we saw 10+ foot shooting cracks in the start zones of the bowl. After the 1st skier, skied down the slope part way and stopped by a tree. The slide initiated in 2nd bowl in the steeper part of the slope. It ran till the small trees on the slope (300+ feet).
Weather: Overcast Throughout day with some breaks. When the slide happened it was moderately snowing (S2).
Snowpack:

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Natural avalanches in Evans Basin

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Natural avalanches in Evans Baisn
Aspect: East
Elevation: Below treeline

Avalanches: Observed two natural soft slab avalanches that likely ran last night on an east aspect below treeline in Evans Basin. SS-N-R2-D2-O and SS-Ny-R1-D1-O. Failed on 2-3mm depth hoar at the ground. Crown heights were up to 40cm thick, with the slab ranging from 4F at the bottom to F at the top. The larger of the two slides showed impressive propagation, roughly 300 feet wide wrapping around a terrain feature. Measured debris piles up to 6 feet deep. The second slide looked to be sympathetically triggered, 50 feet away, smaller in size.

Weather: Light snowfall with intermittent pulses of S3 through the day. Light winds. Scattered to overcast skies.

Snowpack: Traveled along a creekbed this morning with multiple collapses, shooting cracks up to 40 feet, and creek banks peeling off into the creek. 18″ deep (4F to F slab) over facet layer. Traveled up to the base of the Evan’s Basin slide, got 3 or 4 rumbling collapses that appeared to travel as far as 100 feet away, and numerous other small collapses. Similar snowpack.

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Slate River Avalanches

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Slate River Avalanches
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9000-10500

Avalanches: One skier triggered slide, then triggered hangfire adjacent that pulled out into 25º terrain. 65cm deep slab. Classified SS-ASu-R2-D2-O when combining both initial slide and hangfire triggered slide.

Numerous natural avalanches observed on N-NE-E-SE facing slopes at all elevations size 2-3.5 (some basin wide-Peeler). Only 1 storm slab observed on any kind of westerly tilt today (SW facing slope).
Weather: Partly cloudy, residual instability produced trace while skiing. 15″ new snow overnight, 25″ last 48hrs. No significant wind BTL, light WNW wind near and above treeline. Low 20s.
Snowpack: 15″ of new snow overnight (guessing 6% density) was almost hard to believe, as all ski and sled tracks from previous day were wiped clean. Trailbreaking was difficult for those that were out early (thanks JS and AH!!) . 65cm (25″) new snow last 48hrs. Driving up Slate below Schuykill NW wind texture was apparent, and each gully was crossloaded. 5-7mm Surface hoar found in 3 pits on varying aspects (E-NE-ESE), 65cm deep (preserved by new snow). 2-3mm depth hoar present but unreactive. All snow stability tests showed ECTN… Prop Saw tests should be in order to test basal weaknesses as any kind of shovel tapping may lead to false-stable results with fluffy pow.

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Gothic snowpack obs

CB Avalanche Center2015-16 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2015
Name: Peter Innes
Subject: Gothic snowpack obs
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9600-9800

Avalanches: None.
Weather: Heavy snow through early morning, then partly sunny. Little to no wind.
Snowpack: About 24cm storm snow overnight, on top of 18cm storm snow that fell yesterday. Probing on an east aspect below treeline, snowpack was 80-90cm deep. Structure was consistent between two pits 200 vertical ft apart, fist hardness throughout with 3-5mm depth hoar, as well as a 5cm slab 40cm below surface, which was still fist hardness but slightly harder than rest of snowpack..

ECTP5 on a 38 degree convex rollover, with a Q2 shear 40cm deep on the 5cm slab previously mentioned.

A ski cut created an isolated series of fractures in the storm snow, but did not propagate. See image.