Red Lady Glades

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Will
Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9000-11000

Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast with a break in the clouds around 1400 which produced a large amount of solar, light winds and snow flurriesy
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS:
No Avalanche activity was seen, no signs of any instability, whoompfing or cracking. HS 223cm, boot pen 63cm, ski pen 35cm. Air temp -4*C Surface -6*C T20 -8*C. Slope angle 25* at 10,800 SE The new snows interfaces where easily found with a shovel tilt test, with little resistance and a planer surface. The Jan 1st interface as 109cm with an CT that resulted: CT22Q345cm From the surface down 120 had a hardness of F 4F 1F. See Photo:

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Cement Creek

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Ian Havlick/Evan Ross
Subject: Cement Creek
Aspect: North, West, North West
Elevation: 9000-10500

Avalanches: no new avalanches observed, looked hard, did see evidence of several S-SE facing slopes and gullies. Faint crowns and buried debris. looks like these slides slid early this week.

Big paths on Italian, Cement, etc were difficult to see due to lingering fog/clouds, but no obvious crowns.
Weather: Overcast but gradually clearing most the afternoon, with one light snow shower toward sunset. Calm winds. Temps in mid 20s.
Snowpack: Quite impressive. snowpack averages 150-200cm. Generally solid, rightside up. Dug one profile on W facing slope at 10,300 (BTL). Revealed solid structure with old snow/New Years storm interface gaining strength. ECT produced no results, and slab finally failed cleanly, but stubbornly on aggressive shovel shear after ECT test.

No signs of instabilities in terrain travelled.

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Red Mountain

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations, Snow Profiles

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Red Mountain
Aspect: North, West, North West
Elevation: 9200-9600

Avalanches: no signs of obvious crowns on SE facing shoulder of Whetstone or surrounding terrain. Visibility was improving but still limited.
Weather: Overcast skies, snow flurries, temps in mid 20s. light but sneaky south winds.
Snowpack:  40cm boot pen. Steady southerly wind re-filled skin track in 30min.  Found spooky structure digging in a targeted shallow area due to wind scouring/loading/scouring near ridgetop on a NNW aspect.  Profile revealed preserved buried surface hoar from New Years Day, as well as reactive basal facets.  No signs of instability or evidence of recent avalanches on S-SE shoulder of Whetstone, but visibility remained limited during tour.

ECTP24 SP on surface hoar, as well as PST37/100end on SH.

PST20/100 end on basal facets.

surface hoar found 60cm from ground
3-4mm facets from near ground

Smith hill

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Jeff
Subject: Smith hill
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 8,860-9,800

Avalanches: No Avalanches spotted, despite lots of effort to stomp off on top of steep rolls in thin bushy areas
Weather: Overcast, greenhouse at mid day
Snowpack: HS 40-170cm, lots of low snow areas at all elevations with high spatial variability, advanced depth hoar covered by crusts with thin slabs on top transitioning into deep HS nearby.
Evidence of Strong SW & NW wind transport is close proximity.
No cracking/Whumpfing
Ski Pen much less today ~20cm
Solar radiation more pronounced on SW than S, moist ~10-15cm deep.

2 X CTM SC failure on FC 3-5mm F 30cm down.
Sitting on MFcr 1F 10cm thick
Storm slab above of 4F to F right side up

2 X ECTN
adjacent N slope had solid bonding on a much thinner MFcr

Coneys

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Dave, Karin
Subject: Coneys
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9.5- 11K

Avalanches:
Weather: Overcast skies (OVC) until 2pm and then broken skies. Winds calm to light, with periods of snow no greater than S-1. Cloud cover created a greenhouse effect and warmed the surface snow. Midday temps Air -1.1C, Sfc -0.4C, T20 -3.1 C
Snowpack: We skied one lap on Coney’s sticking to

CBAC Snodgrass Study Plot Snowpit

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Arden Feldman
Subject: CBAC Snodgrass Study Plot Snowpit
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9760

Avalanches: Had some decent but partially obscured views of the prominent ridge above the East River to the SW of White Rock Mountain. Didn’t see any avalanches other than a possible ~D1.5 soft slab that came off the ridge top ATL.
Weather: See Profile. The sun actually came out for little this afternoon!
Snowpack: See Profile. Right side up slab with weak layers healing.

Jan-13-Snodgrass-Pit

Irwin obs

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Irwin obs
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 11,800 ft

Avalanches: Skier triggered and explosive triggered about 5 soft slabs, up to 18″ thick, behind cross loaded features, failing on mid storm layers. Flat light and limited visibility of surrounding range. Could see one D2 crown off of E aspect of Ruby Peak and one debris pile below Ruby that ran fairly far, now smoothed over by wind. Maybe R3 or so.
Weather: S-1. Mostly overcast. High of 31. Light winds with minimal transport
Snowpack: 6″ new this morning, with some drifting from southerly winds. Above treeline: intense winds during the last storm have left some alpine slopes scoured to rock, and obvious variability in snow depth depending on crossloading and aspect.

SWE Record at Schofield

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Art Mears
Subject: SWE Record at Schofield
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: The storm just ended was a big SWE dump at Schofield Pass but not a record in the last 31 seasons. February 13 – 20, 1986 saw the SWE increase from 26″ to 40″ (about 14″) in an 8 day period. This ended with a 3.5″ SWE increase on the last day. We were not recording HS at that time. We did not have a “level 5” at that time either but if there had been it was probably at level 5 for 3 to 4 days.

Irwin Guides Level 2 Course Obs

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2017
Name: Irwin Guides
Subject: Irwin Guides Level 2 Course Obs
Aspect: North East, East, South
Elevation: 9,600-10,300

Avalanches:
Weather: S1 OVC Winds SE light, gusting to Mod
Snowpack: GUIDE(S): Tim, Jeff, Chris

DATE: 1/12/14

No signs of instability, except for stomping off mini cornices underfoot on roadcut at trailhead (1F windslab ~25-35cm thick, new snow sitting on top & no propagation)
Stomped around top of steep southerly slopes with no collapses
No Propagation on ECT’s @ 9,800 open meadow E aspect off cat road
CT’s in storm slab produced shear qualities of RP & BRK on