Avalanches: Avalanche slid naturally between time snowcat grooming road passed and group of snowmobilers passed slide path. Poor visibility but crown looked 80-100ft wide, 3ft deep, failing in sparse Aspens in windloaded convex slope. slid across road and into trees on other side. Airblast shook snow from trees. Debris 8-10ft deep, 6ft on road.
Weather: Obsured, moderate snow, strong to extreme winds, slight lull in snowfall at time of slide but steady west wind.
Snowpack:

IMG_0666

IMG_0667

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Avalanches:
Weather: 16:45
S1
Storm force winds from NW, intense drifting
Snowpack: HS 145cm
23* slope
ECTP 16 SC on storm slab instability of F hard PP 45cm down
ECTP 7 SC repeatable, with the 1F slab above

after investigating block & removing it, continued with informal test and found a 2nd failure @ 85cm down on 25th tap. Slab of 1F RG 0.5mm that propagated (SP) on thin layer of F hard FC 2mm lying on a 1F hard MFcr.

bottom 1/3rd of pack consisted of well bonded facets that have rounded and at the ground are very moist & stuck to the grass. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

no other signs of instability on a short low angled tour, spooky stable underfoot.

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: A mess here. So here is the data I just collected- since 7 a.m. 8½” new snow with 0.59″ water and snowpack at 76″ deep. This should compress fast but no let up in snowfall yet. Also little wind.

Avalanches: Checked out the crown above Kebler Road that ran last night..  It was ~3 to 3.5 ft deep, failed on the January 1st melt-freeze crust, and wrapped from SE to S to SW aspects below treeline.  Debris piles were at least 10 feet deep in the apron, and some of it reached the road.  Weak layer was pretty indiscernible above the crust, but it was nuking too hard to really look. SS-N-R4-D2.5-O.   Also spotted a couple D1 storm slabs on very steep, N aspects BTL.  Roof avalanche chaos in town.
Weather: S3 to S5, moist to wet snow. Moderate winds at ridgetop with a few stronger gusts and snow transport. Warm temps.
Snowpack: Spooky few signs of instability this morning. Traveled above some small, NE facing paths below treeline, and jumped around above them without producing any signs of instability other than very minor cracking and one small loose snow avalanche. About 1 foot of new, very dense snow.

Starting zone of Seven Sisters slide.

Western flank of Seven Sisters slide.

SS-N-R1-D1-S. N BTL

Small skier triggered sluff.

Crown of Seven Sisters slide. SS-N-R4-D2.5-O.

Eastern flank of Seven Sisters slide.

Avalanches: Crested Butte Mountain. Monument avalanche: SS-AE-R4-D2-O. Time: 0745 Patroller was caught in an explosive triggered avalanche. Avalanche airbag was deployed. Patroller was carried 200 feet down the slope and buried waist deep. No injury. Crown depth: 20 inches. Width: 100 yards. Vertical fall: 200 feet. Slope angle: 37 degrees. Elevation: 11,200 feet. Aspect: north.
Weather: 0500 observations at 11,330 feet: Precipitation rate: S4. Storm snow: 13 inches. SWE: 1.25 inches
Snowpack:

Avalanches:
Weather: Moderate snow since the 5:30 report so overnight a very wet 7″ and 0.74″ of water so the 24 hour total is 12″ and 1.17″ with 68 1/2″ on the ground now. Wind is light from the SW with obscured cloud cover. High was 36, low 25 and current 32. Hazard is high though no activity in a few days and Snodgrass has not run yet this winter except for one small slab during the earlier storm cycle.
Snowpack:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/09/2017
Name: Gunnison SNO Trackers

Avalanches: An Avalanche slid across the road, just to the west of the Splains Gulch Entrance between the hours of 22:00 and 23:00 (10 – 11 pm) Enough to cover the existing trail in 8’+ of snow. Searched the slide with beacons but found nothing.
Weather:
Snowpack:

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Avalanches:
Weather: (12:50) Elevation 11,600
Temp -4.5c
Sky: obscured
Precip: S 2
Wind: Moderate from the SW
We had a about 8-10cm fall throughout our tour
1mm plates where falling at the above time. Stellars where falling at the beginning of our tour.
Snowpack: SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS:
We did not observe any signs of instability throughout our tour.
Snow depth was 165cm -174cm
Boot Pen 50cm
Ski Pen 20 cm
Snow Surface -4c
T20: 18c

Avalanches:
Weather: S3. Calm winds
Snowpack: HS = 128 cm. 60 cm of soft slab (F to 4F) over Jan 1 interface, which appeared to be a mix of 1-2mm SH needles and .5mm DFs. ECTN 29 PC on this layer. The rest of the snowpack is uniform 1F, except for the bottom ~15 cm which is 4F 1.5-2 mm rounding facets. PST 95/115 END on this layer.

These are all the slides that *appeared* to fail on the Jan 1 interface PWL or deeper. Where the weak layer was known, I used the symbols in the graphic to show that. Most of the naturals we did not visit. ZG