WEATHER: Light snow, light winds 6-9am. Then calm and clear, 30 F.
SNOWPACK: Recent windloads on ridge from North and South. Fresh, deep wind slab on top 100′ of the run. No signs of instability.
WEATHER: Mostly clear with steady winds from the north/nw 15mph w gusts 20+
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Toured up Snodgrass with level 1 Avy class. HS 100cm. Found several layers in the upper 20cm of the snowpack. Wind crust, buried surface hoar, decomposing new snow particles, buried surface hoar again, then ice/sun crust (5cm!) and then another layer of buried surface hoar. Upon digging, the upper pack collapsed. First time above sun crust, second time below crust, failing both times on buried surface hoar layers and failing both times while digging. Persistent slab buried deeper in the snow pack was not reactive to snow tests.
Snowpack Summary, February 2015. Â -ZG
Date: 02/02/2015
Northwest flow has set up over northern Colorado where several disturbances will impact that area over the next few days. We’ll be more on the fringe of these weather systems but should still see snowfall during this period. This snowfall will mostly be west of Crested Butte due to westerly and northwesterly orographic lift. Things are not looking so good after Wednesday so let’s not talk about that yet. I’m just hoping that February lives up to its name and brings us some bigger winter storms!
High Temperature: 23-28
Wind Speed: 10-20 G 40
Wind Direction: W, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-3
Low Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2
High Temperature: 31
Wind Speed: 10-20
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2
WEATHER: Mostly clear with steady winds from the north/nw 20mph w gusts 30+
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Toured up to the glades with level 1 Avy class. We had a supportive ice/sun crust with 6+cm of new snow which soften things up. Â Snow was wind effected near tree line. Â Our group observed a sluff avalanche and what looked to be a small crown avalanche on red lady. Â There were 2 tracks to the skier right of these slides that were put in early morning prior to the slides. Â Not sure if the slides were natural or skier triggered. Continues wind loading throughout the day from tree line up. Â Did not see any signs of instability throughout our tour. Â The wind layer was starting to slab up in certain areas on the ski down. Skiing was in variable conditions but still good, new snow freshened things up a little.
AVALANCHES: Noticed an R1-D2 apparent windslab release directly below a ridge line on an Easterly aspect of Whetstone. Also noted a slab release on Red Lady Bowl just under the ridge line near the center of the bowl. Possible cornice drop?
AVALANCHES: There were no signs of any avalanche activity on the slope or in the surrounding areas.
WEATHER: The temperature at the trailhead was 25 at 12 noon with the wind coming from the north. The wind was steady throughout the day from the north and stronger at the ridge and valley floors. There were strong winds at the summits of all the surrounding peaks with snow transport clearly visible. The afternoon was partly sunny with only slight environmental temperature changes.
SNOWPACK: The snow pack was variable with the surface snow being wind buffed where exposed. There was a wind slab of a couple inches throughout the entire pitch with allmost all previous tracks having been filled in. There were no cracks, whoops, or unstable snowpack signs during any of the laps.
WEATHER: Light snow, winds 0-10mph. Temps around 30 degrees
SNOWPACK: Jan. 31st Tour: 4″-6″ new snow on a very firm surface along the west facing skintrack below treeline. Descended southern aspects and estern aspects. The new snow did not slough or crack. It seemed to be bonding well to the old surface.
Feb 1st Tour: Same zone, strong winds formed windslabs quickly. Observed rapid warming on protected southern aspects. No signs of instability.
WEATHER: Sunny, Chilly temperatures. Strong NW winds of 20 mph consistently through the day with gusts up to 30mph. Blowing snow at ridge line of Wolverine Basin with gusts over 40mph creating “tornado-like” swirling.
SNOWPACK: Dug a pit at 11,200 ft on N aspect on 15* slope. ECT12 sudden collapse fracture that did not fall into the pit, occurring on a mostly planar surface, Q2. May of experienced a smoother faster sheer (Q1) if preformed on a steeper slope. Snow height 124cms, collapse 32cm’s down from the surface on angular facets ranging from 2- 8 mm in size.
UPLOADS:
PART_1422840624348_IMG_20150201_125350885-1
Pit-ProfileAVALANCHES: Two second-hand reports of skier triggered windslab avalanches today.
