Name: Zach Guy
Title: Windslabs and variable persistent slab structure in Oh-Be-Joyful
Location: Kebler Pass Area to Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2015
Aspect: North, North East, South East, South, North West
Elevation: 12,000 feet to 9,000 feet

Avalanches: Widespread cracking on windloaded features and numerous touchy windslabs up to 10″ deep on SE aspects near and above treeline, running on the thin suncrust that formed yesterday. SS-ASc-R1-D1-I. See photos. Also some cracking and very thin pockets (2-3″ thick) released in relatively sheltered, northerly ATL terrain, potentially on the surface hoar layer that was observed yesterday(?) Didn’t look at the interface closely.

Weather: Overcast to broken skies. Strong NW winds, with moderate to heavy snow transport. .Moderate snowfall (S2), with about 2-4″ accumulated through the day.

Snowpack: Traversed from the headwaters of Oh-Be-Joyful basin to Slate River trailhead monitoring PS problem. Near the headwaters, at 10,000 feet in the far west end of the basin, the snowpack was 200 cm deep. In the pit, the Dec 13th facet layer was indiscernible to the naked eye and in hardness profiling, and it produced non-propagating results about 80 cm from the surface. (ECTN25, Q3 ). Moving east and gradually losing elevation, the layer became noticeable to pole probing (hollow feeling under denser slab) where the snowdepth was roughly 100 cm to 80 cm deep, just upvalley of where Peeler Basin enters Oh-Be-J at 9,600 feet. Around here we started noticing soft collapses underfoot. Further east down-valley, around 9,400 feet below the Redwell runout, the slab felt mostly gone to faceting, with easy pole probing throughout, no more collapses, and a snow depth around 40-60 cm.

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Location: Irwin Cat Ski

GENERAL COMMENTS: Snow began in the early am and by 9:30 snow began in earnest with strong winds near and above treeline, but even still filtering into below treeline areas.  Windslabs were very touchy and growing in size 10”+ in E. Barkmarker by the afternoon.  Poor visibility prevented backcountry obs.  Storm really fired up around 1500, with that classic Irwin NW-flow nukage that was continuing as we left for the day.

East: am: Perfect loading speeds and direction for EBM. Cracks shooting 20-40’. Fresh windslabs 6-10” deep. Remotely triggered Bender from Swill and got Candy’s to clean out wall to wall while approaching the cornice mid day. D-.5 -1.

South: Sunny Shoulder had stout crust (3-5 cm), (Jan 3 interface) with only 1-2” of new snow on top in the am. New snow seems to be bonding OK with minimal sluffing.

West: UWW, Moonrise, Far Out, Sunset, feeling slabby but not yet slabbed up across extensive terrain. Classic 6-10” windslabs on little rolls behind tree islands, but not long running, or widely propagating… yet. Round two Below Moonrise two small pockets 6-8” deep 20’ wide not really running. Did seem that the new wind and snow was touchy in areas holding yesterdays SH/MFcr combo….worth watching.

Name: ADB
Title: Mt. Emmons
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/03/2015
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation:

Avalanches: None in the bowl.

Weather: Mostly cloudy with pockets of sunshine. Snow flurries were constant with negligible accumulations. Along south ridge and below summit ridges, winds were light and unable to transport snow.

Snowpack: Skin track above south ridge had less than one inch of new storm snow. At the base of south ridge at the transition from tree line to alpine, found 2 to 3 inch stiff wind slab. Found a softer wind slab below the summit ridge, which was around 3 inches thick. Top of the bowl on the west side had soft slab snow.

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Name: Donny
Title: Washington Gulch
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2015
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9500-11000

Avalanches:

Weather: WEATHER: Clear, calm and 6ºF at 9,400′ @ 09:30. Clear, light NW wind and 20ºF at 12:30 @ 10,800′. Clear, calm and 8ºF at 9,400′ @ 15:30.

Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: The mountains were chatty today. Surface hoar and near surface facets on all elevations and aspects. Ski pen varied widely. From 5 cm on more southern tilted ridges to 40cm on more northern aspects below treeline. First run in the trees felt like surface facets separated from basel facets by a thin crust. Not much of a slab. Out in the open part of Coney’s was much different. East aspects were cross-loaded from down valley winds and this wind slab was reactive. Several collapses and large shooting cracks visible, even under 5cm of new snow/SH. At one point (~10,200′ / East aspect) we collapsed a slope with visible cracks surrounding us. Slope angle was about 25º. Moving on to more north aspects meant the wind slab wasn’t as pronounced, but it was much easier to “sink” to the 12/13 interface. It had a spooky feeling about it. I have included a couple photos of the remote triggered slide in Coney’s from 12/30. It looks like a R3-D2. The crown is about 50cm. It ran about 400 vertical feet.

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Name: than
Title: warmth
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2015
Aspect: East
Elevation: atl

Avalanches: surface sluffs on steep east facing aspects above treeline, small but running full track starting around 11 a.m. in Evans Basin

Weather:

Snowpack: surface hoar

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Name: Alex Banas
Title:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2015
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches: the bowl was tracked out almost wall to wall

Weather: Calm and balmy

Snowpack: Dug around red coon glades on a 32 degree SE aspect @11,500. shallow 80 cm snowpack with 16cm of DH below an interesting melt freeze faceted layer. CT19 Q1 @ 16 cm from the ground. ECTX. Skiing felt a bit punchy and the pack was warming up quickly throughout the early afternoon. Surface hoar was widespread on all aspects and elevations but the more solar aspets seemed to be burning off the hoar, the shady aspects were holding strong with larg hoar. Looking north towards S maroon pk I saw S, SE aspects flushing seemingly large, mostly on steep slopes with lots of rock features.

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Name: Ian Havlick
Title: Field Day near White Rock Mountain
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2015
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9500-11000

Avalanches: Definitely felt like considerable danger in the area we travelled today. Cracking, booming collapses, and recent activity on anything steeper than 35º was observed. Confident that if we travelled into steeper terrain, we would have produced size 1-2 avalanches.

Weather: clear, calm, cold. Not a breath of wind until around sunset, when plumes were observed off peaks near Schofield, and farther east toward Precarious and Castle Peaks.

Snowpack: Ventured into the more eastern forecast area near Brush creek to look at snowpack and get some eyes on the Snodgrass massif and some of the avalanche activity in that area from across the valley. Snow depths range from 50-150cm deep depending on elevation and aspect. Snowpack is quite weak, with 3mm dry depth hoar and facets through much of the snowpack, but slightly denser, stiffer snow overlies the Dec. 13th interface, creating that slab. Punchy and trap-doory while skiing up and down. Boot pen was to the ground, and ski pen varied from 10cm to full depth (~65cm). Felt several very large collapses while skiing on a variety of aspects. Many of which produced cracking on nearby rollovers and steeper slopes. 2 pits on different aspects and elevations produced propagating results where the slab was denser. ECTP17 SC and ECTP20 SC. The pit lower in elevation did not produce propagation, but failed at 14 taps at the december 13th interface, and 17 taps failed at the ground.

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