Name: Zach Guy
Title: Irwin slides and surface hoar
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2015
Aspect: East, South, West
Elevation: 10,000-12,000 feet

Avalanches: 2 lb handshot initiated a persistent slab avalanche on a West aspect above treeline. Roughly 3 to 4 feet deep, ran ~1,000 feet. Mostly on Dec 13th interface. SS-AE-R4-D3-O. An airblast on a similar aspect produced a shallower slide, ~10″ deep that entrained enough snow to bury someone. SS-AB-R2-D2-U

Weather: Clear and calm all day.

Snowpack: Widespread surface hoar layer on all aspects and elevations. Needle-like, up to 3 or 4 mm at the higher elevations, decreased in size with decreasing elevation. A thin crust formed on steep southerly aspects.

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Name: Andrew schauer
Title: Small skier-triggered slide at Snodgrass
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2015
Aspect: Northeast
Elevation: Not sure, about 2/3 of the way to the top

Avalanches: Small skier-triggered soft slab avalanche on NW aspect about a foot deep and +/- 25 ft wide. Ran about 500 ft. Slope failed on facets under previous storm’s snow. Minor signs of wind, but slab was 4 finger hardness, not super dense. Start zone was a convexity, about 35 degree slope. Nobody caught or buried.

Weather: Intermittent snow

Snowpack: From a pit lower down on a slightly more westerly aspect:
Depth about 75cm
No real signs of wind slabs, a few different layers with facets, especially deep in the snowpack.
ECTN15 about 10cm depth in new snow layer
ECTN28 about 30cm depth in thick facet layer
Both failures were Q3
CTN at same location
All failures were poor shear quality and showed no signs of “popping”, snowpack did not seem very reactive.

I did notice two old crowns in the area that were starting to get buried again. Probably from the last week.

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Name: Evan Ross
Title: Mount Emmons
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2015
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9000-11,400

Weather: WEATHER: Few clouds becoming overcast and snowing by 10am. Snowing up to S2 at times with about 2″ of accumulation. Calm to light down valley winds.

Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Same same really. Could still feel a density change by probe of weaker snow on top of the 12/13 facets and below the solstice slab. Likely a thin layer of NSF that should be gaining strength. On a south slope at treeline this interface was still noticeable in a pit wall but was considerably stronger then a pit dug on 12/26, same aspect, and about 500ft lower in elevation.

On a cross loaded slope just above the parking lot 2″ windslabs where cracking.

Name: Gary Dotzler
Title: Small Avalanche on Snodgrass
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2015
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9600

Avalanches: Small sympathetic release following a whoomf. Small rollover on Snodgrass near saddle at 9600 ft. See pic below.

Weather: Snowing

Snowpack: Started skin track 1 mile south of Gothic, near cabins on west side of road. Immediately heard whoomfing about every 3-5 minutes of travel. Had only climb 300 feet when one whoomf set off a sympathetic release on roll over 70 yards away. Looked to be a 2ft crown at it deepest. Picture attached. Was about 50 yards wide. that coupled with the whoomfing was enough for us to turn around and call it a day.

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

Avalanches: Due to very low visibility, NA.

Weather: Happy New year. Tour began under mostly sunny skies with clouds moving in from southwest (Mt Axtell). Skies quickly transitioned to mostly cloudy then continuous snowfall. No wind was associated with this front, as there was no wind on the summit ridge or south ridge of Mt. Emmons. The skin track on south ridge had approximately 0.5 inches of new snow. Snow fall rates were less than 1 inch/hour and continuous

Snowpack: While sun was out, observed surface hoar formation in open areas, as I did yesterday on Snodgrass (no obs). ATL-2 to 4 inches of wintry snow. BTL/NTL-4 to 8 inches of wintery snow with infrequent pockets of sun crust.

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Name: Jake Jones
Title: North and South Near Town
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2015
Aspect: North, North East, South, South West
Elevation: 10,500

Avalanches: No signs of instability on or off the skin track or while making turns.

Weather: Light snow and calm wind early on New Years day.

Snowpack: The most southerly aspects in the Slate River valley are showing the first signs of surface crusts. Those crusts were getting buried by the couple inches of snow that fell today. Northerly aspects in the Washington Gulch valley are growing surface hoar and near surface facets. Overall the snowpack is really supportive on both ends of the compass rose with deeper ski pen on the north. Didn’t travel on slopes steeper than 30 degrees.

Name: Evan Ross
DATE: 2014-12-31
Location: Scarps Ridge
Elevation 10,000-12,200
Aspect: S-SW

Weather: Clear dog clear! Calm wind at ridgeline becoming light to moderate from the southeast in the afternoon. Some blowing snow at ridelines. The next storm was approaching from the southwest in the afternoon.

Snowpack: Prime time ski time! Great skiing conditions on south facing slopes. NTL and ATL slopes had a dense wind pressed slab from the Solstice storm with fresh low density snow on top from earlier this weak. Didn’t find any signs to instability but managed terrain features and stayed on slopes 35 degrees or less. Surface hoar was widespread in the morning. Vary small, 1-2mm.

Avalanches: Numerous avalanches observed that failed during the Solstice Cycle. Wide propagating slabs on west aspects and smaller pockets on southeast aspects. All startzones likely 35 degrees or steeper.

Guide(s): Donny (Irwin Guides)
Date: 2014-12-31
Location: Red Lady Glades to Evan’s Basin
Elevation: 9200′ to 12,400′
Aspect: Mostly south

Weather: clear, calm and cold at the trailhead in the morning.  Significant warming during the day.  It was downright pleasant to 11,800′.  Moderate winds from SE on top of Mt. Emmons.  Some blowing snow and loading into Redwell Basin.

Snowpack/Avalanche Obs: Ski pen of 5cm while skinning.  Boot pen varied.  At times it would go to the Dec. 13 interface, other times it would go to the basal facets.  Snow surface was a mix of surface facets and surface hoar.  No signs of instabilities or recent avalanches.  I dug two, quick holes.  The Dec. 13th interface is still there, and the snow above it gains strength the deeper it gets.  Why is it not reactive?  I wonder if the snow since Dec. 13th isn’t starting to facet, maybe some crusts as well, and therefore the change in hardness is less dramatic?  Obviously, I didn’t have time to study in more detail. Thoughts?

Name: Zach Guy
Title: Large natural slab into Peeler Basin
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/31/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 12,000 ft.

Avalanches: Recent natural avalanche (probably failed in the last 3 or 4 days) off of Scarp Ridge, NE aspect ATL. Looked to be about 2 feet deep, 150-200 feet wide, ran full track into the bottom of the basin (~800 vertical feet), releasing a secondary slab as it came over the first cliff band. Unknown failure layer. SS-N-R2-D2-U.