West aspect NTL:  Long Shot: SS-AE-R3-D1.5- O/G: 60cm at deepest, 40’ wide, ran 400’. 3 different interfaces were seen in crown. See photos. Another slide in Way Long but could not see if it was slab or loose snow, put debris 400’ down.

West aspect NTL: SS- AEr-R3-D2- O. Triggered remotely from approximately 6 feet from a 4lb hand charge in Lean. Crown was 90cm deep (4F to 1F) on Dec 13th crust. 70’ wide, ran 500 feet to Round 2. Debris was 4-6 feet deep.

Strong, steady wind all night but with only light snow and staying quite mild. Past 24 hours has 5″ new snow and water 0.37″. Wind letting up slightly towards sunrise and snow picking up a bit.  No visibility, currently 22ºF.  Good snow transport from the wind.

-Billy Barr

Name: DH
Title: Large natural above Nordic Center
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/22/2014
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,000 ft

Avalanches: The hill above the Nordic Center just went big. Wall to wall as big as it could have gone and plenty big to bury a person. Pretty scary.

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Name: Evan Ross
Title: Crested Butte Zone
Date of Observation: 12/22/2014
Aspect: North East, South East, South West
Elevation: 11,000

Weather: The word, Blizzerd, would sum this section up well. Strong westerly winds, snowing hard S2-S3, drifting snow, whiteout conditions at times in open areas. Sweet!

Snowpack: Toured midday in the Elkton area. Very touchy avalanche conditions on all aspects toured with a good chance to release an avalanche problem on any slope over 30 degrees. Storm snow was wildly variably in depth from strong to extreme westerly winds. The 12/13 crust interface was exposed in some areas or buried by 3 feet of F+ slab in others. Rumbling collapse where muffed by the recent slaby storm snow. These Rumbling collapses where remotely triggering soft slabs on all three aspects from long distances away. On SW and SE slopes these slabs where most active in specific terrain features that have seen additional wind loading. On these aspects the soft slabs appeared to be running on the 12/13th crust interface but may have initiated at a storm interface. On a NE aspect the problem was widespread and just as easy to remote trigger from large distances away. On this aspect, soft slabs where running on the 12/13 NSF interface. These slabs where measured at 21″ deep on one slope and were wildly propagating around, or through terrain features.

Avalanches: Several remotely triggered R1-D1 and R2-D1.5 soft slabs on SE and SW slopes greater then 30 degrees. One remotely triggered D2 soft slab avalanche that propagated wildly through terrain features and tree islands

Uploads:

Thicker wind deposed soft slab on a SW aspect at 11,000ft

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Hangfire above a wildly propagating persistent slab avalanche on a northeast aspect at 11,000ft.

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Remotely triggered soft slab on a southeast aspect at 11,000ft.

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Name: Zach Guy
Title: Elkton
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/22/2014
Aspect: North, South
Elevation: 11,000 feet

Avalanches: We avoided avalanche terrain and had poor vis to view paths like Coney’s or Gothic. Some very small road-cut avalanches observed, failing on mid storm layers.

Weather: Spent yesterday and this morning at Elkton Hut. Constant snowfall all day yesterday and into this morning, S2 to S3 on average, with moderate to strong west winds. Whiteout conditions.

Snowpack: Heavy wind transport made for variable storm snow distribution across terrain, typically from 15″-24″ deep, some drifts easily 3ft deep. Very slabby, dense, and top heavy over lower density snow from last week, over the facets or crusts that formed early December. Some cracking observed on southerly aspects. Very wide running crack (over 300 feet wide) triggered when approaching a north facing slope.

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Name: Mike Nolan
Title: Red Lady Glades
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2014
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: Treeline

Avalanches:

Weather: Steady snow and calm winds below treeline. Heavy gusts and rapid loading above tree line with whiteout conditions. 8-10″ new before 12:00

Snowpack: New snow is not bonding well to crust. Extensive shattering on anything above 30 degrees near and above treeline.

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Name: Jake Jones
Title: Mt Emmons South
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/21/2014
Aspect: South
Elevation: 12,000

Avalanches: Poor visibility overall but no natural or human triggered avalanches were observed. No signs of instability on the tour up or down. Although we stuck to low angle terrain.

Weather: Moderate to strong snowfall and wind above treeline.

Snowpack: 6-8″ of low density storm snow resting on a poorly developed crust from last week. The November crust is more developed and was mostly supportive on higher angle slopes 25-30 degrees. Overall shallow snowpack between 12,000 and 9,300 on south aspect close to town.

Name: Irwin Guides Level 2 Course
Location: Wolverine Basin & Coneys
Elevation: 9,500-11,100′
Aspect: NE/E/SE

Weather: Mostly cloudy; snowing intermittently all day with 5cm HST at 1600. Calm winds and high T* of -4C

Snowpack/Avalanche Obs: See photo below

Name: Andrew Breibart
Location: Snodgrass
Date of Observation: 12/20/2014
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,145 feet

Weather: Calm winds and mostly cloudy to 100% cloud cover. Continuous snowfall. Air temperature at pit was 19 degrees F.

Snowpack: Test pit on 24% slope below summit ridge.
Height of snow was 70 cm.
Between 46 and 70 cm, hardness of fist and 4 finger overlying a 5 cm (2 inches) slab with hardness of pencil between 38 and 43 cm.
Between 32 and 38 cm, fist and four finger hardness overlying a 4cm slab with a one finger hardness between 28 to 32 cm.
Below 28 cm, facets (fist hardness).

CTH (CT23) Q2 at the ground.

Name: Evan Ross
Location: Washington Gultch
Date of Observation: 12/20/2014
Aspect: North East, East, South
Elevation: 11,000

Avalanches: No recent avalanche activity noticed in the Washington Gulch area.

Weather: On and off S-1 to S1 through the mid-day. Overcast sky. Light NW winds not transporting snow around 1pm.

Snowpack: Lots of low density storm snow just waiting to be blown around by stronger winds.

Test profile on an East aspect just below ridge line (attached below). Storm snow on the 12/13 interface was F-F+ and this little bit of cohesion produced propagating results on NSF layer in stability tests. Storm snow on a North aspect at the same elevation and on a similar terrain feature lacked any cohesion and didn’t produce similar results on the same interface. If the storm snow had some cohesion or slab the results would likely have been the same on the widespread NFS layer between the different aspects. The big difference between these two slopes were in the bottom 10cm of facets. The North aspect held fist hard DH that produced SC results in compression tests. The bottom 10cm on the east aspect was 1 finger facets and produced no results in CT tests. Both slopes held about 80-90 HS.

The storm snow continued to show good bonding to 11/13 crusts on a South aspect.

Many BTL Southerly slopes in Washington gulch are still bare ground or hold a very shallow HS. In general, Washington Gulch seems to be holding a shallower HS then right next door in the Slate River drainage. As well as much less recent avalanche activity.

Uploads:

• 20141220.Washingtongultch.pdf