Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Jeff Banks

Subject: Scarps Ridge
Aspect: North, East, South, West
Elevation: 9,400-12,400

Avalanches:

Too numerable to count. Most of Scarps ridge is littered with mid-storm releases where a crown was not usually visible. Most of these appeared to be ~D1.5 to small D2 in very steep, cliffy terrain.
However observed a few notable slabs:
-North side of Barkmarker zone 2 X D2 that slid within the basal facets post storm @ 12K, N aspect.
-Adjacent to these slides another D2 from mid storm
-SE in Elk basin slid D2, possible slab

Weather: Cold -20C clear light winds
Snowpack: Super variable. only a few moderate sized collapses along ridge lines where the snow was shallow ~50cm with a WS above facets.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Evan Ross Avalanche L1 Class

Subject: Gothic Area
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9,500-10,600

Avalanches:

Looking around the East River Valley there were no notable slab avalanches that I could see. Loose snow avalanches off of Gothic Mountain and a few out near Belview were about it.

Weather: Clear and beautiful out there
Snowpack: Mostly same same as previous days observation. Saturday’s storm snow had lost strength overnight and PS structure continued to be isolated to non existent in the terrain traveled. Avoided the most suspect areas rather then trying to gather direct observation on those terrain features. No obvious signs to instability. The weak layers are there, just not enough load or slab yet of the PS issue.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Bryan Mazaika and Seth Tucker

Subject: Skooks First Bowl
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,200

Avalanches:

Our main goal of the day was to look at the belly of the beast firsthand. We could have chosen more conservative terrain as we normally do and plenty of other options existed for our day. We wanted to get a pit profile a pitch or two down First Bowl. We skied one short pitch and regrouped in the trees. During the second pitch we skier triggered a PS-ASu-R2.5-D2-G. We estimate the crown height to be 100cm and 15 meters wide. The slide ran 275m, a majority of the slope to the next rollover. It was triggered about 11,100, 100 feet or so below the ridgeline. The slide broke about 10m above the skier and skier 2 was located just below the crown, both skiers we able to ski out of the hazard. Given we both wanted to look at this terrain firsthand we got a big result. I want to attribute our safety and getting out without injury due to our communication verbal and radio, skiing short pitches within verbal range and choosing good islands of safety. The new snow from 2/10 was certainly a tipping point for our weak snowpack structure.

Weather: Light breeze, sunny, 25 degrees
Snowpack: Upon hitting the ridgeline with southern exposure we noticed a strong sun crust on the 1/20 interface and the new snow was sliding underfoot

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Kristi Murrin

Subject: Avalanche on Anthracites East Bowl
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,500

Avalanches:
Weather: Clear
Snowpack: Variable, we skied from top of east down through trees on skiers left from top notch. Leaped frogged with one other person. Taking turns. Ski triggered a small avalanche that moved one skier about 100 ft. Not deep enough or long enough to bury. There is another big slide just to the right that slid to the bottom. Must have happened only a short time earlier.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2018
Name: Chris Martin

Subject: Coney’s/Washington Gulch
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9400-10800

Avalanches:

none

Weather: Obscured skies. Snow increasing throughout the day from S1-S2 varying back and forth throughout day. Basically no winds observed at ridge top when we were present. NW winds through valley observed latter half of day.

Snowpack: No immediate signs of instability.
HN 6-8” of new snow yet to be a slab observed throughout tour.
1M snow @10,800’ F-4F-1F-F with multiple crusts interspersed throughout pack.
Overall poor structure with slab above.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/11/2018
Name: Alex Banas

Subject: Coney’s/Washington Gulch
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9300-11300

Avalanches:

none observed

Weather: Obscured, snowing S1- S2 throughout the day. Light to moderate westerly winds.

Snowpack: 10cm new snow by 1300. Snowfall accumulation rates diminished in the afternoon. No cracking, collapsing or avalanches observed today. New snow varied from grauple to low-density stellers later in the day. The new snow did not show any signs of stiffening throughout the day.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2018
Name: Jeff Banks

Subject: Conies/Washington Gulch
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9300-11300

Avalanches:

Avalanche: none observed but visibility obscured

Weather: Obscured > Overcast in afternoon. -7C to -9C Moderate NW downvalley winds with drifting in valley floor but light in open glades climbing out of valley floor

Snowpack: HST ~6" low densit, no slab yet.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2018
Name: Eleven Guides

Subject: Eleven Guides PM Report (Cat Tenure Irwin)
Aspect: South, South West, West
Elevation: 10,100-12,300

Avalanches:

Several Dry Loose avalanches (D-1) on steeper slopes especially later in the day
running moderate speeds within new snow. Surprised to see JA glade sluff, pick up speed and deliver a small
powder cloud into the trees. Thornton’s Glade ran faster with more mass. Thornton’s was the only run that
we observed a storm slab crack and propagate 100′ wide but still ran like a dry loose but with some mass to
it D1.5.

Weather: Obscured, Snowing S5 most of the day, winds west moderate with strong gusts, high temps
were at midnight (29F) and cooling all day. 17F & 11F at 16:00. Still snowing at 17:00 S2.
Snowpack observations:

Snowpack: Very little to no cracking in the new snow, not feeling slabby even as high as
Moonrise. New snow came in denser and got lighter through the day and seems like it will continue tonight
with cold temps. Not sure how well it is bonded to the old crusts on southerlies as we stayed mostly
straight west. The sluffs were not running at the interface but within new snow where it got less dense.
Avalanche observations:

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/10/2018
Name: Evan Ross Avalanche L1

Subject: Gothic Area
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9,500-11,000

Avalanches:

Weather: Obscured sky. Light wind. 6" HST at 11,000ft at 3pm. Snowfall tapered off to S-1 in the afternoon.

Snowpack: Storm snow was unreactive with current accumulations. Foot penetration is still to the ground on shaded slopes with some supportive crusts on more sun effected easterly slopes. Couldn't feel or find much for PS stucture traveling in the terrain. Avoided the most suspect areas rather then trying to gather direct observation on those terrain features. No obvious signs to instability.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/09/2018
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Skooks first bowl
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9,000 – 11,300

Avalanches:

We triggered on small slab mid track on this run. My line choice did not allow me to inspect crown but it was 14-18” deep and approx. 20 feet wide. It ran at most 50 vertical feet. Failed on small convexity. Some rocks were just visible in bed surface. My best guess was that this failed on an old bed surface based on old crown several hundred vertical feet above, but it’s depth also corresponds to 1/20 interface.

Weather: Mild air temps through out tour. Winds at upper ridge were reasonable with light gusting, no snow transport visible.

Snowpack: Snowpack structure near ridge top at 11300 down to 10,300 was generally supportive to skis. HS was right about 100cm through this terrain with around 60cm of 4finger hard snow capping weak basal depth hoar. Old crowns in this terrain were completely filled in except in a few spots, debris was no longer distinguishable.

Photos: