Name: Kirk Haskell
Title: Anthracites
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/30/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,ooo ish

Avalanches: no recent signs

Weather: Winds gust from SW 15-20 Mph starting to clam around 2pm

Snowpack: About a 6″ windslab at the top wind transporting snow to NE facing sides . Went half way up to top of Rock and Tree chute and decided to abort since we were experiencing shooting cracks and whomphing .

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Name: Jafar Tabaian
Title: California Love
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/30/2014
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,500

Avalanches: Skied skiers right shot of California bowl on Snodgrass. Set of a soft slab avalanche on aggressive ski cut towards top flank of the slope. Approximately 30 cm (12 in) crown that slid on December dry-spell sun crust. East facing slope that was 35-40 degrees. Purposely ski cut the flank of the slope to test it before we skied so it was D1.5 and R1, but I think the entire face would have gone if we had ventured out on to the main zone, which would likely have resulted in a D3 and R4 avalanche. Did not step down into persistent layer, which seemed to be very facet (rotten) ridden. Based on what I’ve seen the past few of days on Snodgrass I would ski very conservatively across the zone. We retreated to the trees and it skied great without additional signs of instability.

Weather: Overcast. S1, very light snow towards sunset. No wind. Lots of dogs.

Snowpack:

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Cali-Bowl-2

Cali-Bowl-1

Name: Zach Guy
Title: Explosive-triggered Avalanches at Irwin
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/30/2014
Aspect: West
Elevation: 11,800 feet

Avalanches: Handshots and airblasts triggered 2 sizable persistent slabs on west aspects above treeline, failing 1.5 to 2 feet deep on facet layers near the ground (the Dec 13th interface and gouging through all old snow below it). Both slides were roughly 150 feet wide and ran 900 vertical feet, Debris piles looked to be 5 to 8 feet deep. D2 to 2.5 in size. SS-AE/AB-R2-D2/2.5-O

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Name: Travis Colbert
Title: Red Lady
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/29/2014
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 12,300

Avalanches: The final (and steepest) rollover prior to the lap track released a very small slab (4-5 inches deep, 10 feet wide, ran about 20 feet).

Weather: Intermittent light snow; light but steady winds from the west. Partial clearing at times, then socked in again. Cold (8-10 degrees).

Snowpack: Snowpack was solid despite some wind transported snow in the bowl. Very soft, 2-inch unconsolidated wind slab in the bowl. Broke off a small section of the cornice with no results. Ski cut broke up the soft surface slab, but produced no significant results. All of the tracks from weekend were completely covered by the new snow and wind transported, recycled powder. Bowl skied perfectly; creamy soft powder turns all the way down. Went up for a second lap, but visibility dropped considerably at the summit. Skied fluffy powder through the glades all the way down to the road.

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Name: Donny, Will
Date: 2014-12-28
Activity: Level One Avy Course, Tour Day
Location: Red Coon Glades
Elevation: 9200′ – 11,600′
Aspect: S – SE

Weather: Overcast to obscured skies, snowfall throughout day, periods of S2, but less than 5cm accumulation throughout day. Snow was mostly DFs with a short period of graupel.  Light wind most of the day, with moderate W/SW winds above 11,000′. -13ºC at 9200′ @ 10:30; -18ºC at 11,600′ @ 13:00

Snowpack & Avalanche Obs: Not much new to report. Dec. 13th interface still present above 10,000′.  More solar aspects present a harder crust, shaded aspects are more faceted.  Nothing new here.  Top 3cm of new snow was denser than bottom 2-3 cm due to increased winds.  No signs of avalanches or instabilities.

Name: Will Dujardin
Location: Snodgrass Weather Station Pits 12-28-14
Date of Observation: 12/28/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11120

Weather: Light snow and low clouds, very light wind.

Snowpack: We dug two pits just approx. 3.5 feet deep to the ground right next to each other on slightly different slopes (30 degrees and 37 degrees) on the NE aspect just below the weather station. We isolated two blocks to test the storm snow and the persistent slab in both pits. The 18~” of storm snow sluffed away in both pits to shovel taps. The 30 degree pit we were able to get the isolated persistent slab to go with applied boot pressure, in the 37 degree pit we had the storm slab (just above the top of the shovel in photo 1) go with a single skicut to the back, like a Rutschblock test of sorts, and the persistent slab to go with a boot kick in the same spot. See attached photos to see what the ski cut did in the 37 degree pit. It seems like it’s definitely harder, but not that hard, to trigger that persistent slab, and the slab formed from the recent storms is very touchy, it could definitely knock you down or bury you in a terrain trap, and if it stepped down to the persistent slab it would result in a massive avalanche . We skied back the low angle E-SE aspects to avoid the NE avalanche problem. Sorry for the lack of technical terminology!

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