Date of Observation: 03/30/2022
Name: Zach Guy Evan Ross

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Poverty Gulch, 9,500ft to 11,500ft. N, NE, SE.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Skier triggered several small wind slabs on N, NE, and SE aspects between about 10,500ft and 11,500ft. These each released in storm snow, just above the 3/29 interface. Crowns averaged 6″ to 10″ thick.

Weather: The first 3/4th of the day consisted of a mostly cloudy sky with a few short breaks. Cloud cover began to decrease in the afternoon. Where we traveled the wind was moderate with a variable direction and transported snow through the day. As the sky was clearing in the afternoon, the winds looked strong in the alpine from west to northwest with lots of blowing snow.

Snowpack: Recent snow accumulations have settled down to 1″ to 3″ in the valley and 3″ to 6″ at upper elevations. Wind slabs were the only avalanche concern we encountered. The new snow was thick or slabby feeling, and conditions made it difficult to identify wind-loaded terrain features. The skier-triggered wind slabs were breaking above the 3/29 interface, on a density change in the storm snow.

On northerly facing slopes at upper elevations, the 3/29 interface was a thin crust over lightly faceted grains or no crust and just faceted grains. There wasn’t enough snow to create a widespread new snow avalanche problem on this interface and additional wind-loading was necessary. We aborted one up route when we encountered a slab around a foot thick on faceted grains near ridgeline that we couldn’t avoid.

Down in the valley, the road was still punchy with snowmobile skis and tracks sinking deeply at times. Talked to on group that was looking for a quick ski near the trailhead and aborted because the snowpack wasn’t supportable. In the afternoon our snowmobiles were at times sinking deeply on the road.

Date of Observation: 03/30/2022
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Keystone snow course
Crested Butte snow course

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: NA

Weather: Early AM Keystone: obscured skies, 30 degrees F, light to moderate winds
Late AM and early PM: CB snow course: mostly cloudy and clearing, light to moderate winds, above freezing.

Snowpack: Keystone (lower Red Lady Glades): 2 inches of new snow. supportive: Average snow depth: 43 inches; average SWE: 14.6 inches; density 34%
CB snow course (Slate River Valley near town): 1 inch of new snow, which appeared to ablate within two hours on site. Unsupportive snow on and off skin tracks. We had ski pen 2 to 4 inches while skinning. Average snow depth: 39 inches; average SWE: 12.7 inches; density 32%. Had melt water at the bottom of the pack in 4 of 12 samples. (side note: Slate River is starting to have increased runoff relative to the winter low flow).

Date of Observation: 03/29/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobile tour around Kebler Pass area and ski tour up Elk Creek.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: Did not observe any natural avalanches. Skier triggered a tiny loose avalanche on a northeast aspect in the moist storm snow below treeline that ran on top of the soft crust that formed overnight. I suspect that longer slopes below 11,000 feet would have allowed a loose avalanche in the storm snow to gouge into the wet snow below.
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies, periodic light snowfall with a few periods of S1-S2, and moderate westerly winds at upper elevations. Mild temperatures below treeline and a few periods of sunshine. New snow accumulations ranged from 2 – 7 inches along the Kebler corridor at 4pm.
Snowpack: The storm snow was moist and sticky on all aspects below treeline, and the sunny terrain features I traveled on to treeline. At low elevations, the crust below the storm snow was very thin and soft. East, south, and west slopes below treeline felt trap door and punchy. A quick profile on a northeast slope below treeline showed a good amount of liquid water lingering in the snowpack that was draining into the February facet layer. Crusts became supportive to skis somewhere around or just above 11,000 feet. Crusts at 12,000 feet were up to 2 inches thick. I poked into wind drift around 12 inches thick and did not see any cracking or signs of instability. Winds were efficiently transporting the storm snow onto the east half of the compass at 12k.

Date of Observation: 03/29/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Roadside hand pits in the lower Slate and Mt. CB area, 7 a.m.

Observed avalanche activity: No
Snowpack: Cloud cover and snow last night made for a worse refreeze than any of the previous nights. In some locations, there was a soft, thin crust with unsupportive wet snow below. Where that setup exists, it felt like a ski turn or snowmobile cut could get a large, gouging wet loose avalanche going. In other locations, there were a few stronger ice lenses near the surface that were still unsupportive to boot pen, but added enough strength to the upper snowpack to prevent gouging. Variability seemed to come from aspect (better refreeze on more easterly slopes that went into the shade yesterday afternoon) or maybe elevation.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Eric Murrow

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Washington Gulch. Obs come from the Northwest and Southeast zones.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Numerous loose avalanches from the past few days on east and west aspects. I did not observe anything new today between 11am and 430pm. I spotted a small wet slab that likely ran on Sunday 3/27 and a couple loose avalanches on NW slopes of Emmons at 12,000 feet.
Weather: Increasing cloud cover throughout the day and slight increase in winds. Warm temperatures that felt a small amount cooler than the day before.
Snowpack: I was looking to track meltwater depth on northerly slopes. On northeast and northwest slopes around 11,500 feet, I found that meltwater had formed an ice lens above the February facet layer and a small amount of water was oozing through the lens into the mostly dry facet layer. On a drifted east slope at 11,900 feet, I found that meltwater had moved through a very dense 1-meter thick slab past the February weak layer and was pooling in denser snow below Feb facets. On a due north slope at 9500 feet, the meltwater had formed an ice lense above the February facets with liquid water present along the ice lens and weak, dry facets below; on an adjacent northeast portion of this feature the Feb facet layer was wet. See profiles for more details. Low elevation sunny terrain was close to an unsupportive, mushy mess in the later afternoon. I produced a few moderately-sized rolling collapses in the valley bottom around 430.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Mt. CB

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Spotted a handful of D1.5 to D2 wet loose avalanches on W and NW aspects near and below treeline that ran sometime after I glassed the slopes at 4 p.m. yesterday
Weather: Few clouds, light winds, warm.
Snowpack: Boot penetration was to the ground through wet snow at noon.

Date of Observation: 03/28/2022
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A good number of wet, loose slides were running as the snowpack is rotting out though this should halt with the weather change as the clouds are moving in.
Weather: Yesterday was the third day in a row of 50ºF weather, all record highs for the date, with yesterday’s 58F the warmest as the snowpack has dropped rapidly to the lowest since the beginning of the month at 51″ on the ground now, about 7″ below average for this date. The low overnight 23F and currently 24F as it has become mostly cloudy.
Snowpack:

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: Dominic Gawel

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skin out from gothic.

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Loose wet on lookers left, wet slab on lookers right around the crackin’s arm.

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Road

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Gothics SE side ran down to valley floor. Smaller releases on the E side proper

Date of Observation: 03/27/2022
Name: daniel kreykes

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Bowl/gully above first Cement dispersed sites

Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Largish loose wet slide off E aspect cliffs that ran 3/26. Entrained enough snow to deposit snow up to 7′ deep and 90′ wide in the gully bottom.
Weather: Hot. E/SE was sketchy and trapdoor by 10am. S by 1045am