Location: Crested Butte Area Date of Observation: 02/23/2019 Name: Travis Tucker
Subject: Smith Hill Quick Pit Aspect: South West Elevation: 9,560
Avalanches:
None observed.
Weather: Sky 2/8. Moderate Winds w stronger gusts. Significant wind transport observed at higher elevations from North Westerlies.
Snowpack: Not as deep on this aspect / elevation with a HS of 123cm. Surface was DF. Layers prevelant and reactive. Especially 2/2 down 40cm.
CTE 7 SP Q1 / ECTP 10 down 40 on FC/Cr combo. Bottom 20 CK’s was junky DH.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area Date of Observation: 02/23/2019 Name: CBAC Fx Team
Subject: Morning Observations, Natural Avalanches Aspect: North, North East, West, North West Elevation: NTL-ATL
Avalanches:
Fresh natural avalanches within last 24hrs on W-NW-N-NE facing terrain near and above treeline from southerly winds over the last 24-36hrs. Large D2-2.5 persistent slabs were triggered by windloading, and small windslabs stepping down to deeper layers.
Wolverine- N-NE facing, ATL. D2.5 Failing from small windslab, then stepping down and propagating much wider. This avalanche looked to propagate the widest along WNW facing steep rocky terrain where the primarily wind direction would have stripped much of the snowpack hight this season.Â
W-NW facing Gothic, ATL, D2.5. Failing similarly, propagating widely, failing on variety of weak layers from varied bed surface.
Peeler Basin North Bowl. Another very large natural avalanche. Probably D2.5 . The trouble here, is that there looks to be now cornice fall or windslab to trigger this deep avalanche. It just looks like one deep crown that ran naturally. More information is needed
A second hand report of a large natural avalanche that ran natural today on easterly terrain on Belview Mountain in the Gothic Valley.Â
Many other natural avalanches were reported above treeline today. These were all generally small, other than the avalanches that previously failed and are noted above.Â
Weather: Clearing skies, strong north winds above treeline, single-digit temperatures.
Photos:
Wolverine
Example of wind-loading today. Purple Ridge E Bowl
Location: Paradise Divide Area Date of Observation: 02/22/2019 Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Pittsburg area snow and wind obs Aspect: South West, West Elevation: 9,400 – 11,200
Avalanches:
two wind slabs on same feature SSW. 2 x SS-ASi-R1D.5
Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with light snowfall throughout the day. Winds at ridge top picked up around 130pm out of the west-drifting of snow with gusts to ~30mph. By 5pm snowfall had largely stopped with accumulations during the day of less than an inch.
Snowpack: New snow accumulations since Monday 2/18 were only about 5 to 6 inches total – certainly some settlement happened in new snow during the week but minimal accumulation from several days of very light snow. At a near treeline location, 11,000′, we found a leeward terrain feature that faces SSW with thin shallow Wind Slabs forming ~5 inches thick. This feature was very small and a known drifty piece of terrain but signals that Wind Slabs are certainly starting to build with ample soft snow around for transport.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area Date of Observation: 02/22/2019 Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Deep Snowpack And Feeling Strong Aspect: North East Elevation: 9,500-10,900ft
Avalanches:
Small loose snow avalanches in steep terrain. Failing in the few inches of recent low density snow.
Weather: Overcast, about 4″ of new snow at 3pm today for the last 24hr. Winds were calm to light even at ridgeline. No recent drifting snow, other than what was previously drifted earlier in the week.
Snowpack: Snowpack hight around 180cm at 10,500ft in Washington Gulch. Sluffing in the new snow was the main concern, otherwise no signs to instability and the snowpack continues to feel strong.
Skiing for the past week has produced no signs to instability as it relates to the persistent slab avalanche problem where the snowpack hight is near average as reported in other observations. The main red flag found this week as it relates to the PS problem was where the snowpack heigh was below average and 120cm’s at that location. Many previously wind-loaded terrain features, and areas that the snowpack looked thiner then average, where avoided in the last week.
Location:Â Crested Butte Area Date of Observation: 02/21/2019 Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Felt Coastal Aspect: North, North East Elevation: 9,400-11,400ft
Weather: Partly to mostly cloudy through the day. Didn’t notice any snow plumes on the peaks but the light wasn’t there to really see that well. Noticed valley tracks getting drifted back over. Otherwise traveled in areas protected from the wind. About  1″ of new snow in 24hr
Snowpack: Feels like coastal pow. No signs to instability and skiing north to northeast NTL/BTL terrain. The Valentine Storm really stuck well to rocks and steep terrain features. We didn’t encounter any thin snowpack areas that may have been more concerning.
Location: Crested Butte Area Date of Observation: 02/20/2019 Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Shooting Cracks WNW. Otherwise Quite Pow. Aspect: North, South, North West Elevation: 8,900ft to 12,300ft
Avalanches:
Several D1 and D1.5 windslabs in the alpine on wind-loaded terrain. One fresh D2 windslab into Redwell Basin.
All other avalanches were old, from around the Valentine Storm. Many D2’s from N to NW to E at ATL and NTL elevations in Redwell Basin.
Weather: Mostly Cloudy sky with some breaks to let the sun through. Moderate westerly rigeline winds in the alpine transporting snow.
Snowpack: For the current moderate wind speed in the alpine, most of the snow has already been blown around and transported. That snow looked to have mostly transported last night and yesterday. Still there was snow blowing around today and there is plenty more in the fetches as the wind speeds pick up.
Generally a quiet day with the snowpack feeling strong. We continued to manage slopes with windslabs and trigger points in mind.
Shooting cracks were observed and a week snowpack was found on west northwest terrain at a near treeline elevation. HS was much shallower then average here, around 120-130cm. There were several large avalanches in this terrain from the Valentine Storm, and it didn’t take long in that terrain to realize the snow wasn’t something we wanted to travel on.
Photos:
Mowed down trees in Right Chute or Wrong Chute. Start zone NW at 11,000’ish feet
Location: Kebler Pass Area Date of Observation: 02/20/2019 Name: TC
Subject: Axtell Walkabout Aspect: North, North East, South, South West Elevation: 9,800-12,000
Avalanches:
One small wind slab in 4th Bowl (picture attached), but very little recent activity. Only minor sloughing in Corner Pocket on the decent back into the Coal Creek drainage.
Weather: Cold. Back and forth between clouds and sun. Surprisingly light SW winds on the ridge early, increasing to 10-15 mph by the afternoon.
Snowpack: Informal probing with my poles throughout the tour. Seems to be setting up nicely on N and NE. South (girlfriend glades) was about 20 cm of new snow on top of a supportable, but potentially collapsible sandwich of old sun crusts.
Photos:
