Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2018
Name: Kirk H

Subject: Adventure Quest
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 11400 ft

Avalanches:

Past Avalanche activity observed , at least 5 . Most Big and to the Valley floor . See Pic’s

Weather: Calm, Sunny and Cold
Snowpack: There are many 4 letter expletive’s to describe the snowpack and “good” isn’t one of them.
Depending on where you poked 50-70cm in Depth. From the start to about 10,000ft lots of whumpfing and some cracking. Above 10k it stopped.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/16/2018
Name: MR

Subject: Baxter Basin crowns galore
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,600-12,500

Avalanches:

see photos. Widespread avalanches northeast to east from the thursday-friday storm. photos are of daisy pass area, martini couloir, and the ridge between angel pass and augusta

Weather:
Snowpack: skied south to southeast aspects on mix of windboard, zipper sun crusts, and sun softened supportable crust. Very aspect dependent, the subtlest changes in aspect produced big changes in snow quality. Fortunately we are amazing skiers so were able to enjoy the variety of conditions.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2018
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Irwin profile
Aspect: West
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Dug a quick pit at 11,000’ on a West aspect in a slightly shaded spot. Found 73 cms of snow (much shallower higher, Little Deeper down lower).
No slab to speak of, but a CT column collapsed (SC) while cutting the back 19 cm up from the ground on the facet/depth hoar at the ground.
Strong solar and mild temps (high of 31 F) had the surface snow moistening with cinnamon buns rolling down the hill. Persistent but light NW winds helped with cooling up higher.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2018
Name: Irwin Cat Operation

Subject: Snow Safety team report

Weather: Skies: Few, High Temp 31F, Winds Moderate with strong Gusts, NW transporting snow.
Solar radiation not too strong
Snowpack: HS 34″ at 8am, settled to 33″ by 4pm.  Overall weak and variable snowpack with Fist to 4F Midpack. Any slab that is developed is very discontinuous. HS: 30-80 cm’s with 15-30cm ski pen and boot pen to the ground. some isolated wind whales that are hard plastered in. SE, S, & SW had a thin MF crust from yesterday. in Eastern terrain, observed HS of 80-100cm’s just below ridge top that diminished to 40-60cm’s lower on slope and in the aprons. A few different MF crusts that were not very clean. ECTX no propagation. No avalanches triggered. We dug 2 profiles in Aprons and both had propagating ECT’s on the 12/21 interface. In the shaded glade ECTPV on 4mm DH. on a sunnier slope ECTP 29 SC. The sunnier slope also had two mid pack crusts (1/6 & 1/9) and most surface snow that will be a crust tomorrow.
Only One Collapses felt today in Sunset Right with Packers.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2018
Name: Evan Ross. Avy 1 class

Subject: Colorado Backcountry Avalanche Course Observation
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,800-11,000

Avalanches:
Weather: Mostly clear sky. In the trees for the most part, but winds seemed to be blowing a bit in the open.
Snowpack: Hard to find areas that have seen little previous traffic. On a NE slope at about 10,200ft, a collapsed produced shooting cracks. Otherwise few signs to instability given all the previous traffic in the area. On shaded slopes ski pen was about 15cm and the snowpack was unsupportive to boots. Got on one ESE facing slope with an HS of about 40cm with snow PS structure.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2018
Name: Sarah Johnson

Subject: SheJumps Avi 1
Aspect: Northeast
Elevation: Below Tree Line

Avalanches:

Saw 2 previous avalanches on eastern aspects on ridge lines in coney’s area. One was previously reported on the ridge on 1/13/18 and one not known to be reported further south.

Weather: Warm; felt cool. NE Wind – light to moderate. Blowing snow. Few clouds.
Snowpack: No new snow. Wide-spread surface hoar. Snow height: 50-80 cm. Collapses: three in eastern facing rollover in a meadow with willows throughout area.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2018
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Lower Slate River avalanche photos
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: Views from valley bottom

Avalanches:

Went out slate to take stock of avalanches from last cycle. There were numerous slides present on Climax, lower Wolverine Basin road cuts, and Schuylkill Ridge. I travelled through the valley last on Friday around 2pm; visibility was slightly obscured at the time but reasonable. I believe a good chunk of the slides in photos occurred after Friday, 2pm.

Weather: Clear day with what felt like strong radiation. Winds were lightly gusting a valley bottom. Blowing snow was occasionally present at most exposed alpine locations, loading on to south and east aspects.
Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2018
Name: Eric murrow

Subject: Emmons
Aspect: South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,400 – 12,400

Avalanches:

Saw several D2 avalanches for this past weeks natural cycle. They were NE and E aspects just above treeline in alpine terrain. Photos included. They appeared to have failed towards end of last week as crowns were easily still visible.

Weather: Clear day with light winds and occasional light gusting. Saw small amounts of blowing snow in most exposed alpine locations. Snow surfaces were moist on southerlies above treeline.
Snowpack: Punched a quick hole on a SSE slope, 25*, at 11,400 and found a stack of facets and weak crusts. Not a lot of slab like structure in this protected location. Generally fist and 4finger minus facets with weak 1 – 2cm crust sandwiched between. Didn’t look particularly hazardous at moment but def weak and dangerous if it gets loaded.
On descent through Evans Basin found generally shallow weak snow. At around 10,000ft, in very low angle terrain, our group got several collapses on SE slopes. At similar elevation, we crossed above a short steep NE facing slope above creek bed and with several forceful jumps, we were able to collapse and shattered slope, but it failed to release.
Watched several groups ski Red Lady Bowl without incident. Also watched first member of a group ski Redwell Basin without incident (this was a few hundred feet adjacent a natural D2 avalanche from a few days ago).

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2018
Name: Dave

Subject: Coneys
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,500-10,903

Avalanches:
Weather: Warm, definitely felt like it hit 30F today. Sunny all day, light winds in the morning then super calm in the afternoon.
Snowpack: Snow depth avg was 70 cm (but skied like 82cm!) Did not see or feel any signs of instability throughout our 3 laps. Used the usual skin track in the trees, it is in good shape I made a few improvements. I put in the lap track in. Looked at the remote trigger from yesterday, it seemed to be in a steeper area that had a bit of wind loading but still feels like it was a bit odd. I have not seen that spot slide.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2018
Name: Irwin Snowcat Operation

Subject:
Aspect: North East, South, South West, West
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Mt. Owen: NE, 12,800′, 40 degrees: SS-N-R2-D2-O? Estimated 60-80cm’s deep, 150′ wide, ran 1,200-1,500′. Ruby Mt.: East, 12,000, 40 degrees: SS-N-R1-D1.5-I? Estimated 60cm’d deep. 250′
wide ran 300′.
Sunset Left SS-AB-R3-D2-O FC-12/21 (60cm x 20m x 300m) Triggered from the low arblast. Debris was 160cm deep to ground

Weather:
Snowpack: Moving higher on the Westwall we found very variable and discontinuous snowpack ranging from 30-100cm’s. Large isolated wind whales that are plastered in there. More wind effected snow since the 12th, stripped on the top of the UWW and wind crusts and wind textured snow and ski penetration greatly reduced. Cracking in the top 3cm’s. Still mostly weak snow with a soft slab. Fewer signs of instability under foot or with ski cuts. One collapse on a convexity. South aspects got moist yesterday and again today but isolated to South, Not SW. One Avalanche triggered on an airblast.

Photos: