Name: Chad Reich
Title: Skiing
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/17/2014
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 12,400

Avalanches: Observed 2 slides that had already happened on Axtel’s north face below the Wang Chung face, but we couldn’t tell if they were natural or skier-triggered. They were each R1’s, but they would probably have been big enough to injure or kill a skier.

Weather: Lightly snowing (>s1), with strong and sustained winds on the upwards of 20 mph coming from the N. Despite the winds, no cross/lee loading was observed, but it was snowing….Temps were about 20 at the TH and 10 at the summit.

Snowpack: About 4-6″ of new, unconsolidated pow on top of a firm, supportable crust. No high speed sloughing observed on the way down.

No signs of instability aside from small pocket in Way Long.  No cracking, No Collapses.  No sluffs even!  Will be interesting to see in days to come if slab becomes more reactive as slab consolidates…test pit in shade of Knob Steep produced no results in ECT.

Observer: Donny Roth
Date: 2014-12-15
Location: Schuylkill Ridge
Elevation: 9000′ to 11,422′
Aspect: E to NE

Weather: Clear, Calm and 15 to 20F

Snowpack/Avalanche Obs: HS 90cm (max), Ski Pen 20 to 30 cm (off skin track), Boot Pen 70cm, 15 to 20 cm of new snow, very low density, mostly in tact dendrites, the mid-pack is stiffer in isolated areas but mostly the snowpack was new snow on top of facets.  First run in “Thanksgiving” produced significant sloughing, which slowed as angle of slope decreased – it didn’t go far.  Second run on “Lost Ski” (?) didn’t produce any activity at all.  The lower slopes (below 10,000′) seemed to be the “slabbiest” – obviously a product of down valley winds.

Observer: Ross (Irwin Guides)
Date: 12/14/14
Location: Red Lady Glades
Elevation: 12400-9400
Aspect: SW

Weather: Overcast ovc, snowing lightly S1 in the morning. S2 afternoon. Moderate winds from the W.

Snowpack/Avalanche Obs: From the Emmons summit we skied towards Evans basin on a thin wind blown surface. 10 to 20cm deep. on a mixture of wind a sun crusts. In the shaded timber 15-20cm of new snow lays on a facet base and in the sunny areas the new snow rests on sun crusts. No activity seen throughout the day from ski cuts and no results from hand sheers. Not enough snow for CT or ECT’s

Name: Z. Guy, E. Ross
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2014
Aspect: North, East, South
Elevation: 10,000-11,400

Weather: Mostly clear sky by noon. Calm winds and cold temps.

Snowpack: About 10-12″ of total storm snow in the Anthracites. This snow was very light and lacked a slab on most NTL and BTL slopes. A few slopes in these areas has seen previous wind effect with more cohesive slabs. The recent HST heated quickly and became moist on south aspects as the sun came out mid day, with many roller balls on NTL and BTL south facing slopes. Good bonding to the Dec 13th MFcr on southerly aspects. Other aspects stayed dry and cool through the day. We saw no signs of instability other than sluffing on steep slopes that have seen skier traffic before the recent storm on the 13th.

Avalanches: Several natural and human triggered loose snow avalanches on NTL and BTL slopes . One large natural slab in East Bowl from early on the morning of the 15th.  Crown averaged roughly 45 cm thick, up to an estimated 90 cm. The slab was 1F- at the bottom up to Fist at the top. It failed on the Dec 13th NSF layer, (1-2mm facets, Fist hard). It was about 800 feet wide and ran 500 vertical. Start zone at 10,900 feet, east-facing aspect. SS-N-R3-D2-I Video here: http://youtu.be/3OdyyqCKfBM

Uploads:

Crown averaged roughly 45 cm thick, up to an estimated 90 cm. The slab was 1F- at the bottom up to Fist at the top. It failed on the Dec 13th NSF layer, (1-2mm facets, Fist hard). It was about 800 feet wide and ran 500 vertical. Start zone at 10,900 feet, east-facing aspect. SS-N-R3-D2-I Video here: http://youtu.be/3OdyyqCKfBM

Sloughing on an eastern slope at 11,500ft

Northwest slope at 11,000ft that has seen major wind erosion this season and was likely the fetch for the large slab avalanche on East Bowl.

Date of Observation: 12/15/2014
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 12400

Weather: Snowing hard before dawn, 17 degrees, gusty winds at and above tree line.

Avalanches: Cornice kicking released small sloughs running 300 feet with minimal energy.

Snowpack: Firm bottom. Light powder on top, 4-8 inches new.

Name: Nick Schley
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2014
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 8,900-11,500

Avalanches: We enjoyed deep skiing on eastern aspects from 32-38 degrees, with clean run outs and good visibility. Multiple loose snow skier triggered avalanches occurred on slopes steeper than 35 degrees all to be classified as R-1 D-1 and running relatively slow. The most significant of which ran ~150 vertical ft and did not gouge to the ground. We opted out of steeped wooded terrain near 10,000 ft skiing gunsight pass road back to slate river instead.

Weather: Broken sky’s with brief stints of S-1 snow before 9:00am, Clear sky’s after 10:00, light NW winds at ridgetops near 11,500ft.

Snowpack: New snow ranged between 2.5″ at the car to 7” near and above treeline. Storm snow was low density and lacked cohesive “slabby” characteristics near tree line. Periods of light to moderate snow transport were observed near Mount Emmons summit, possibly creating touchy wind slabs but lower elevation slopes showed signs of little blowing snow last night. 1-3cm winds slabs were encountered intermittently on southerly slopes. North facing slopes remain entirely rotten with very little density change and an average HS of 50cm near treeline. Eastern slopes also held early entirely faceted pack near and above treeline while lower elevation slopes had thin unsupportable crusts on the Dec. 13 interface. Southern aspects varied in relationship with shade. Shadier slopes often had ski pen 45, while sun exposed slopes held supportable crusts. By 13:00 thin solar crusts had developed on top of new snow with southern tilts around 9,200ft.

Name: Zach Guy
Title: Large Natural Slab Avalanche in the Anthracites
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2014
Aspect: East
Elevation: NTL

Avalanches: Investigated the slide in East Bowl. Crown averaged roughly 45 cm thick, up to an estimated 90 cm. The slab was 1F- at the bottom up to Fist at the top. It failed on the Dec 13th NSF layer, (1-2mm facets, Fist hard). It was about 800 feet wide and ran 500 vertical. Start zone at 10,900 feet, east-facing aspect. SS-N-R3-D2-I

Uploads:

Video here:

Name: Dodson Harper
Title: Schuykill Ridge
Date of Observation: 12/14/2014
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 11,000′

Avalanches: Human triggered soft snow avalanche on the nose of November Bowl. Approximately 75′ wide and ran 400′. On the upper part of the run, it stepped down to the ground carrying all faceted snow with it. The slide was large enought to knock one skier down, but they were not buried (and no injuries). We saw small sluffs from skiing all day but only this one ran very far.

Uploads:

Name: Irwin Snow Cat Operation
Location: Irwin
Date of Observation: 12/14/2014

South: New snow not slabbed up and bonding well to Dec 13 crust.  A few small sluffs from steeper entrances running within the top of the new snow and not entraining the snow on the crust.  Where new snow is on top of old facets (in the shade) not as good bonding seen with a few quick hand shears.

West: 13:30 – Starting to slab up a little bit, a few cracks only going 5-8’ in front of skis and only 15cm down. No significant signs of instability or avalanches.