Mountain Weather January 22, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/22/2015

Most weather stations around the zone are showing sub zero temperatures this morning. An upper high pressure ridge expands over our region today as a closed low works across New Mexico, making for a sunny and stable day. A weak shortwave fights through the ridge on Friday, but doesn’t hold much potential for precipitation. A blocking pattern sets up through the weekend, with dry weather and a few waves bringing increased cloudiness under a warming trend.

Today

High Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow: 0

Tonight

Low Temperature: 5
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N, NW
Sky Cover: Increasing clouds
Snow: 0

Photos of Scarp Ridge Slide

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/21/2015


UPLOADS:

Natural slab avalanche off of Scarp Ridge

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/21/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Natural slab avalanche off of Scarp Ridge
ASPECT: North East
ELEVATION: 12,000 ft.

AVALANCHES: Fresh persistent slab avalanche off of NE aspect of Scarp Ridge, new in the past 2 days. Looks like it might have been triggered by rockfall. 3 feet at its deepest, most of it was about 1-2 feet, ~20 feet wide at apex, fanned out to about 100 feet wide. Multiple failure planes, looked like the Jan 11 interface on the flanks and ground in the middle. Surprisingly shallow snow depth for this part of the zone; I believe that path also ran during the Solstice Storm. HS-NR-R2-D2-O/G

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather January 21, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/21/2015

Mostly dry conditions prevail as a wet air mass misses us as it moves through Arizona, while a cold disturbance passes to our northeast before converging on the southern disturbance over New Mexico. Enough moisture could ride up north for a few flurries this afternoon. Cold, dry northerly flow will fill in behind these systems by Thursday, and high pressure along the west coast will keep our mountains out of the storm track into next week.

Today

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-1″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 0
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: E
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 15
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: N
Sky Cover: Mostly Clear
Snow:

Natural slab avalanche near CB South

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Cement Creek Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/20/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Natural slab avalanche near CB South
ASPECT: East
ELEVATION: BTL

 

AVALANCHES: Fresh looking natural persistent slab avalanche on an east aspect below treeline. Hard to tell exactly when it ran, but I chatted with a resident who keeps eyes on that slope and she thought it was new today. The slope is a crossloaded, sagebrush slope below Whetstone/Round Mountain. The slab looked about 12″-18″ deep, (most of the season’s snowpack), and was about 100 feet wide. SS-N-R2-D1.5-O

WEATHER:

SNOWPACK:

UPLOADS:

Mountain Weather January 20, 2015

CB Avalanche CenterWeather

Date: 01/20/2015

We’ll see partially clearing skies today in the wake of the shortwave trough that passed overhead last night, bringing a much welcomed refresh to our snow surface. Lingering orographic snowfall should burn off around sunrise. A deepening Pacific trough will drop to our southwest on Wednesday morning, and an arctic air mass moves in from the north. We’ll have to exchange our flip-flops for down jackets, with more typical January temperatures returning to the valley and a chance for an inch or two of snow before things dry out through the rest of the work week.

Today

High Temperature: 25
Wind Speed: 5-15 mph, G 25
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Decreasing clouds
Snow: 0-1″

Tonight

Low Temperature: 10
Wind Speed: 3-13
Wind Direction: W
Sky Cover: Partly Cloudy
Snow: 0

Tomorrow

High Temperature: 20
Wind Speed: 5-15
Wind Direction: NW
Sky Cover: Mostly Cloudy
Snow: 0-2″

Gothic Area Avalanche

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/19/2015
NAME: Eliot Rosenberg
SUBJECT: Gothic Area Avalanche
ASPECT: North
ELEVATION: 10,300 roughly

AVALANCHES: Apparently skier triggered by a separate previous party, possibly 1-3 days old. Failure occurred on the Dec. 13th layer on a 35-40 degree North facing slope. (Rough numbers) 90cm total snow depth, 30cm bed surface to ground, 50-60cm crown depth, 9m crown width, ran 30-40m creating a moderately sized debris pile.

WEATHER: Today it was mostly sunny with a light breeze blowing west to east, mid-day temps were around 30 degrees.

SNOWPACK: Shallow snowpack (roughly 90cm total snow depth) full of facets!

UPLOADS:

FullSizeRender-9

Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/19/2015
NAME: ADB
SUBJECT: Snodgrass
ASPECT:
ELEVATION: BTL/NTL

AVALANCHES: On east side of Snodgrass, observed older avalanche debris in a terrain trap and a recent N-LS-R1 on SE aspect (slide may have occurred within last 72 hours).

WEATHER: mostly sunny skies with slight breeze with a gradual transition to mostly cloudy skies to breeze. Breeze didn’t have velocity to transport snow.

SNOWPACK: Southeast aspest along skin track had “crunchy sun crust.

East side of Snodgrass: Hand test below ridge revealed sun crust underlain by facets. This cycle repeated itself for a depth of 16 to 20 cm.
At same elevation band as aspens, snow transitioned to stiff wind slabs to Gothic road.

Slide on Schuylkill Ridge

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Paradise Divide Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/18/2015
SUBJECT: Slide on Schuylkill Ridge
ASPECT: North, South East
ELEVATION: 11,000

AVALANCHES: New snow ran on a SE facing slope. Skier triggered. Began at about 11,000 feet and ended about 10,000 feet.

WEATHER: Clear

Wolverine Basin and Anthracite Mesa

CBAC2014-15 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date: 1/19/2015

Wolverine Basin: No signs of instability ECTX on crown line profile from early January human triggered slide at 10,500ft, NE aspect. ECTX on N facing slope at 33º @ 9700 Sluffs on NE aspects near 10,200ft. Widespread buried SH.

Anthracite Mesa: One large collapse on flat meadow at 9500′, producing cracks over 50′ away. Another moderate collapse with 25′ of cracking on “Coney’s” ridgeline, NW facing slope near 11k. Shallow (2-10″) 1F-P windslab produced cracking and stubborn movement.
Pits on SE, SW, N, NE with average HS between 40-120cm. No significant results in BTL pits on SW, SE, N. Intense Solar. Widespread Buried SH 10-20 deep in all areas. ENE facing pit, HS 120cm, 4F-1F hardness slab, F-Hard weak layer 2-3mm FC, 26º slope at 11k.
ECTP19 SC @ 55cm. PSTend 42/100 @ 20141213.

Avalanches: Fresh dry loose avalanches in Climax Chutes (farthest lookers right, and other smaller paths). One Wet loose, south aspect, D1 long running