Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/27/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett

Subject: The first big Southeast face avalanche of the winter
Aspect: South East
Elevation: Above Treeline

Avalanches:

The natural cycle that wont’ quit! 3 more D3’s, that ran today, plus at least on D2 wind slab.
Ruby Mtn. North Face, D2 windslab that ran today (Tuesday, 2/27)
Afley Southeast Face, D3 monster!!! that ran today (Tuesday, 2/27)
Afley North Face, D3 that ran Monday
Oh-Be-Joyfull Pass, D3, Persistent Slab that stepped down to Deep Slab

Weather: Light to Moderate winds today, but almost no snow transport and loading today. Noticeably warmer, with snow surfaces moistening on sunny slopes to 12,000′.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/27/2018
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Gothic area obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Fresh windslabs observed on E Face of Gothic (R1-D2) E Face of Baldy (R1-D2) sometime last night and persistent slab on NE slope 40 degrees @ 10,400’ toward Rustlers Gulch on a steep convex rollover. (SS-N-R1-D2-O) in a terrain trap. Approx 48 hours old. See photos attached.

Weather: Warm with high of +2C and calm winds. Upper elevations saw breezy conditions from the NW. Strong solar radiation took a toll on what was left of the dry snow. No précis but did notice a passing cloud or two.
Snowpack: Surfaces a mixed bag of dry snow, sun crusts from zipper to 2” from yesterday’s sun and warm temps. Appearance of RC faceted crystals over the crust. W-NW steeper slopes held dry snow this morning while S-SE crusts softened by noonish. Probing and Ski pole poking revealed variable depths up to 120 cms but mostly “junky” snow with many crust/facet layers. SE slopes visited blow treeline have very little snow with lots of rocks showing.

Photos:

Wind slabs on E side of Baldy and the BTL convex slab.

Good look at the Mt Belleview slide.

Random below TL slab up Rustlers

Wind slab on Gothic. Crown at top, debris at bottom

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/26/2018
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Gothic / Maroon Hut
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

A few smaller recent windslab releases on SE aspects. 1 on Belleview, 1 on White subpeak. Several shallow slabs and loose avalanches shedding off of East Face of Gothic as temps rose before noon. Looks like SE Bowl of Mt Belleview ran big with a large debris pile down low, but did not get a good angle on it. Debris from Gothic NE bowl almost got the Judd Falls toilet, but not quite. Got a good view of the Redwell crown. Very impressive.

Weather: Clear skies cold temps rapidly warming throughout the day. Calm AM winds with PM gusts and plums in the alpine showing strong NW winds. Highs 2.5C in the afternoon.
Snowpack: As to be expected. Mostly shallow with 90cms average and up to 140cms on shady and protected slopes. Soft surface conditions with a supportive midpack 20-30 cms down. Pronounced crust 2/3 of the way down the pack with NCF above and below. Average 20 cms of depth hoar at the ground (see photo)
Snow profile on NE slope BTL showed 1F midpack over 4 cm thick crust with 1F below and 4F facets at the ground. Seems to be dispersing skier weight but spooky structure for sure.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/26/2018
Name: Ian Havlick

Subject: Owen North Face ran D3 today
Aspect: North East
Elevation:

Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/26/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett

Subject: More naturals around the valley
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

Numerous.
Today: two D3’s, and at least three D2.5’s observed.
Several recent slides too from this weekend.

Weather: Continued efficient loading throughout the day
Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/26/2018
Name: Kirk Haskell

Subject: Mt Emmons
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 12392.

Avalanches:

Redwell Avalanche was scary impressive.

Weather: Sunny Calm and Cold

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/25/2018
Name: Eleven Snowcat Operation

Avalanches:

aside from some minor cracking this morning, stability seemed to increase despite dense, cakey snow. One D2 windslab naturally ran 1600 from continued SW wind loading (see photo). looked to be 300ft wide, 3-4′ deep and tapering. Potentially fragile cornice fall initiated. Explosive testing in Candys and Whiskey produce no results.

Weather: Blustery and light to moderate snow showers tapered to broken skies by 1300. Winds calmed after 1500, light north winds at ridge top at 1600. Temperatures remained cold with high temp of 11 at 10k, 1 at 12k.
Snowpack: incremental snowfall continues to add up. Steady wind drifting all exposed elevations, gently re-filled today’s early tracks for partial refresh. Snow moving slow and cold. Some cracking in wind drifted snow on slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Efficient wind transport.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/25/2018
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: 1 to 3ft Deep Skier Triggered Avalanche
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9,500ft to 11,400ft

Avalanches:

Positive feedback on the avalanche problem for once. No obvious signs to instability yet again traveling through the terrain. On our second run we were skiing a line with the intention to trend left for an easier exit. When the first skier kept trending skiers right I had a WTF moment as that was not the direction we wanted to go. The remaining group had a quick chat as to whether we wanted to follow them and of course the double date ski stayed together. Upon regrouping we realized he was trending skiers right to avoid a big terrain trap face thing that wasn’t obvious before. We chatted about whether we wanted to descend the steeper slope that ended in a gully feature and was in the direction that we wanted to head. However it was fairly quick for the group to rule that out as a not so sweet looking slope and setup. So we kept skiing in the safer terrain heading in the wrong direction. Near the bottom of the terrain the 3rd skier trended more in the fall line as the total slope size decreased. The 4th skier followed suit and triggered a Persistent Slab avalanche breaking at the ground. 1 to 3ft deep crown breaking at the ground. The avalanche was relatively small giving the smaller scale of the slope. However it could have been large and deadly had we skied the larger slope that was in the path of our intended decent. This was a windward exposed slope from down valley winds. You definitely couldn’t tell that just by looking at the terrain given all the recent fresh snow in February. However the HS was shallower then average on that terrain feature.

Weather: Mostly Cloudy. Clearing slightly throughout the day. Gusty moderate down valley winds transporting snow.
Snowpack: Continued, no obvious signs to instability. HS in the 180 to 200cm+ range. Had the probe out trying to fine the suspect snowpack structure to dig on, but simply couldn’t get into suspect terrain safely for a targeted observation. Mostly working up a broad and open ridge feature with slope angels generally below 35 degrees. Snowpack structure was variable form past extreme wind events from earlier in the season. The tops of the most concerning northeasterly aspects had HS depths around 200cm, partly due to tree fences and old disgusted wind wales behind those features. The concerning structure would have been further down slope and too deep into the dragons den for safe observation gathering.

Photos:

Looking from the Slate River towards the large and destructive natural avalanche reported in Redwell Basin. This avalanche looked very wide propagating, but didn’t run as far down the total avalanche path.

Looking up towards the reported large and destructive natural avalanche in Baxter Basin. The crown and debris are already filling back in.

Skier triggered avalanche on Easterly facing slope, 9,700ft elevation, slope angle in the mid 30 degree range. Triggered by the 2nd skier on slope. ASu-R1-D1.5-G

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/24/2018
Name: Steve Banks. AMGA Observations

Subject: Mt Emmons
Aspect: South
Elevation:

Avalanches:

No new activity noticed. Wanted to check out Redwell slide but it was inhospitable up there!

Weather: Cold! High 9F low 1F at 11,000’. West winds 20-25 mph gusting to 40. BKN skies becoming scattered by afternoon. HN24 3 cms HST 18cms in the past few days.
Snowpack: New windslab formation throughout the day. Telephone pole hill had 6-8” fresh cornice breaking off easily under skis. 11,000 ridge had 8-10” fresh cornice build up and RLB looked loaded in the upper few hundred feet.
Snow profile near and above TL on South aspect showed several distinct yet decomposing melt-freeze crusts with layers of large facets in between. One pit (attached) had ETCP 18 RP 39 cms up from the ground (105 cm HS) as well as PST 40/100 (end) on the same layer.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/24/2018
Name: ADB

Subject: Mt. Emmons
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Avalanches:

NA on Mt. Emmons and no instabilities on new skin track.
First Bowl of Axtell BTL on NE aspect: L-U-R1-D1. From perspective on Mt. Emmons, it appears to be on recent snow surface within the past week.

Weather: Moderate winds (upper range) sustained on south ridge. Direction changed frequently but predominantly from the west and northwest. Considerable cross-loading of Red Lady bowl. Lot of blowing snow before 11AM.
Snowpack: 2 to 4 inches of new snow /24 hours.

Photos: