Gothic Morning Update

CBAC2014-15 Observations

Date: 2/22/15

Not much here with 4″ over the past 24 hours and 0.25″ water (a big storm for this winter).  The snowpack is at 35½”, just ½” below the winters deepest of 36″ on Feb. 04 (the average depth for this date is 59″).  Currently calm after strong gusting yesterday, with only light snow falling.  billy

Gothic

CBAC2014-15 Observations

NAME: JSJ
DATE: 2/21/15
LOCATION: Gothic
ELEVATION: 9,400-11,150′
ASPECT: W / NW / SE / S / SW
WEATHER: showery and convective day of precip. Mostly overcast with and S2 precip with periods of S5 precip followed by broken skies and sunny spells. Gusty NW winds at ridge top and SW winds closer to valley floor.
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: 10-15cm new snow by 1600. Mostly low density and not slabbing up where sheltered from wind. Snow pit test profiles on a 34* NW aspect at 10,800′ showed buried SH layer down 20 cm reactive to shovel tilt test. Compression Test results repeatedly failed with moderate force and resistant planar fracture character at the basal facets 90cms down. Solar aspects had a 15cm thick MF crust below new snow and zero instability on a 36* slope. New snow seems to be bonding well to old snow surface where it is resting on a roughed up MF crust on solar aspects.

Coney’s

CBAC2014-15 Observations

NAME: Dave
DATE: 2/21/15
LOCATION: Coney’s
ELEVATION: 9,500-10,903′
ASPECT: N – E
WEATHER: Snowy day of precip. Mostly overcast with and S2 precip with periods of S5 precip followed by broken skies and sunny spells. Gusty NW winds at ridge top and SW winds closer to valley floor.
SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: New snow ranged from the trail head to north end of coney’s 5 -15cm new snow by 1700. Skin track was completely covered on our way out.  Mostly low density snow, moderate period of wind later in the afternoon.   Compression Test with no results.

Cement Creek Area

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Cement Creek Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/21/2015
NAME: ADB
SUBJECT:
ASPECT:
ELEVATION: BTL

 

WEATHER: Mixed bag of weather: Visibility ranged from 0.1 km to 2 km. Rates of snowfall ranged from S-1 to S2. Winds ranged from calm to light. No snow was transported.

SNOWPACK: Previous snow totals ranged from 1cm to 4cm.

UPLOADS:

Snodgrass Level 2 Obs

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/20/2015
NAME: Irwin Guides Level 2 Avalanche Course
SUBJECT: Snodgrass Level 2 Obs
ASPECT: East, South East
ELEVATION: 9300-10300

WEATHER: ELEVATION: 9300’ to 10,200′

ASPECT: SE – E

Broken to overcast skies, snowing S2, moderate west winds at 9,900’ (but strong to extreme winds at Snodgrass trailhead), temp 0ºC. Winds seemed to ease a bit through afternoon. Pulses of convective activity passed through all afternoon, but total accumulation was about 2cm by 3:30PM.

SNOWPACK: Class activity for day was a full profile. Pit was located at 10,200’ on an east aspect, 17º slope. (See weather info above.) HS 88cm; HN24 2cm (rimed stellars); Tsurf -3.5ºC. Snowpack was a combination of facet layers, with 3mm DH in the bottom 10cm. Most dramatic interface was 25cm below surface; but didn’t appear to be buried SH and did not react to compression tests (although it was a 17º slope). Most interestingly, the facet layer from 10cm to 37cm was 1F and may have been sintering.

Gothic Storm Observations

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/20/2015
NAME: Irwin L1 Hut Course
SUBJECT: Gothic Storm Observations
ASPECT: North East, South, West
ELEVATION: 9000-10000

AVALANCHES: none yet

WEATHER: overcast in am, snowing and blowing in afternoon, clearing out to broken skies at sunset.

SNOWPACK: 7cms of new snow on West slopes at 10k above townsite. Resting on stout MF crust (10cm thick) on solar aspects. Strong winds blowing new snow around from NW at ridge top and down valley N winds at valley floor. No new instabilities noted (yet).

Kebler Pass Area

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/20/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Kebler Pass Area
ASPECT: South East, South, South West
ELEVATION: 10,000-12,000 feet

SNOWPACK: Significant pre-frontal winds (strong to extreme at all elevations) worked the snow surface over. Trace of new snow. Maybe an inch of pinecone/pineneedle accumulation.

Ruby Range

CBAC2014-15 Observations

NAME: Evan Ross
DATE: 15-02-18
LOCATION:
ELEVATION: 10,500’ to 13,000’
ASPECT: S,E



WEATHER: Clear Sky. At ridgeline winds where westerly, moderate with strong gusts. Winds died down in the afternoon. Warmer temps then the last few days.

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Snow surfaces on south facing slopes surprisingly softened throughout the day even with the morning winds. Slopes with an easterly tilt below ridgelines and in crossloaded gullies had a couple nice creamy inches of blown snow from last Mondays dust on crust. These wind loaded pockets where up to 4″ deep and didn’t produce any cracking or movement while skiing. lots of snowmobile high marking and some ski tracks on NE faceting terrain at the same elevations with no avalanche results.

Kebler Pass Area snow surface obs

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 02/19/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Kebler Pass Area snow surface obs
ASPECT: E, SE, S, SW,W
ELEVATION: 11,000-11,800 ft

AVALANCHES: No signs of instability

WEATHER: Light to Moderate west winds. Few clouds. Temps rose to 39F at 10,000 ft, and 27F at 12,000 ft.

SNOWPACK: The fresh surface snow was moist midday on SE to SW aspects.

On E to SE aspects near/above treeline: A few 4″ thick pockets 1F recently drifted snow in the upper 15 feet of start zones, well bonded. This surface was small (<.3mm) windpacked rounds (RGwp). Most of the terrain was 1-2″ of decomposing fragmented particles (DF, DFbk) with .3mm near surface facets growing, over the Feb 16th Meltfreeze crust, which is thick and supportive.

On South aspect near treeline: 1mm radiation recrystallization facets over 1” of moist snow, over the February 16th MFcr. May have gotten cooked later in the day on steep slopes? Still easily visible on low angle late in the day. No obs from steep terrain

On West aspect above treeline: Top 1/3 of start zones blown out to Feb 16th meltfreeze crust, which is wind scalloped texture. Bottom 2/3 of run holding the last 2” of fresh snow over Feb 16th MFcr, sastrugi texture, looked like some near surface faceting but didn’t pull out hand lens. No recent windloading visible across the whole wall.

Crested Butte Area

CBAC2014-15 Observations

Guide: Donny
Date: 15-02-18
Location: Wash Gulch to Gothic and back

Weather: High, thin clouds; no precip; strong solar radiation; moderate winds from north, temps in the 20s in AM, low 30s in PM.

Snow / Avy: Less than 1cm of new snow; heavily wind-effected (scoured, loaded, crusted, drifted…); surface was everything from a supporting crust up to 5cm thick to wind-scalloped but soft to drifted in and soft.