Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2019
Name: Tom Schaefer

Subject: CBMR stepping out into new terrain
Aspect: East, West
Elevation: 10,000′

Avalanches:

#1 SS-ASur-R2-D2.5-O (skier #1 triggered a small slide on a ski cut below on a N aspect and simultaneously remotely triggered this slide from above on the E facing aspect around a rounded shoulder). E aspect 34 deg. slope Elevation 10,284′ 150′ X 400′ Failed above MFC on T-Day interface.
#2 SS-AE-R2-D2-O (SIingle 2# hand charge in Terminator 1 propagated up the ridge aprox. 400′ through sparse trees releasing across Terminator 2 and down through the apron’s towards the aspens below).

Weather: Cold, Calm, with light snow fall 3″ low density snow last night.

Snowpack: Snowpack was only observed on N aspect at 10,200′ in 4th bowl in previously untraveled terrain. Reported as supportive snow pack on N aspects with approximately 150-20cm HS. E aspect was not observed where remote avalanche occurred.
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2019
Name: Will Nunez

Subject: Questionably quiet at Coneys
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9,000-11,000

Avalanches:

No signs of instabilities, shooting cracks or whomping. Large piles of sluff at the base of gothic west face was observed.

Weather: COLD, NW winds light/mod, Overcast-Few with light moments of orographic of snow fall.

Snowpack: Today’s snowpack observation where questionably quiet. Snow heights ranged from 190-220cm with a variety of snow surfaces from wind scaled in the open exposed slopes to decomposing snow flakes as .5-1mm facets in protected treed areas. Finding no instabilities while traveling we decided to dig a pit on a east aspect near tree line. The pit reveled a hand hardness from fist 190-160cm four finger 160-140cm one finger 140-60cm fist+ 60-0cm down. This confirmed that the persistent slab structure still exists with with two layers of concern. One resting on the 2/2 interface 40cm down resting on 1mm facets and easily pulled off with hand shears, not active with CT tests. The other layer of concern is still the 1/15 facet interface with +/- 3.5 inches of liquid water resting on it. The layer was unreactive to CT test but when pried off after it fell out planer with 1mm facet on both under and below the slab. Perhaps the questionably quiet snowpack structure could wake up in the right spot. The persistent slab structure still exists.
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Snowpack Feeling Strong and Managing Consequence With Terrain
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 11,800-9,400

Weather: Trace of new snow today, mostly cloudy, clam winds with snow blowing off Gothic Mountain.

Snowpack: Boot Pen in the 35-40cm range as the upper snowpack has set up. Surprisingly little sluffing and no obvious signs to instability observed. Stepping out mindset in the terrain, but still managing exposure and avoiding higher consequence terrain features. Dug into one start zone that has previously avalanched earlier this season. NE aspect at about 10,700ft and around 35 degrees steep. HS 180. CTH SP result on a thin layer of 1cm NSF down 60cm. The possibility was there with faceted grains in the snowpack, but no particular layer was screaming that it was the layer of concern.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 02/19/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Westerly terrain BTL and more natural activity from the past few days
Aspect:
Elevation: 9,000 – 10,000

Avalanches:

Observed a few unreported naturals that looked to have failed on Friday and Saturday. Mostly below treeline shaded slopes with the exception of one WSW slopes off of Anthracite Mesa. This slide put some debris across Slate River Rd and a deep pile just above it – suspect this failed on 2/15 early AM, ran ~1,600 vertical feet.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies with S-1 snowfall during the afternoon. Winds were very light, no transport below treeline observed.

Snowpack: Climbed up through westerly terrain below treeline. In this snow favored part of the range, the average HS was ~190cm. The 1/15 and 1/21 interfaces were rounding and gaining strength; no concerning test results on these layers. Two graupel layers from 2/2 storm and 2/15 still clearly visible but no test results. Of note was a soft 2cm melt/freeze crust that formed during the afternoon on Friday, 2/15 – it was buried by about 18cm of snow from Saturday. ECTN test results on 2/15 and 1/21.
Photos:

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/18/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Shooting Cracks on Easterly Slopes
Aspect: North East, East, South East, West
Elevation: 9,000-11,700

Avalanches:

There were many old, small, natural avalanches in the lower Cement Creek drainage where the HS is the shallowest. Grassy slope style avalanches. These avalanches were primarily on wind-loaded terrain features that faced south to east.

Cement Mountain’s north bowl above treeling had a couple of natural avalanches. The largest was in the D3 range and looked to have failed during the Valentine Storm. A more recent D2 looked to have failed during the 1/16 Storm on a NE portion of the same bowl.

Weather: Partly cloudy sky became overcast by 11am. Calm winds. A few very light flurries of snow.

Snowpack: Quieter snowpack then expected, but still some obvious red flags to instability. Mostly traveled on westerly and easterly facing slopes. Kept my exposure to the avalanche problems low. Visibility was also poor with flat light. All travel was via snowmobile so the weight and the punch was there. Mostly covered ground observing the presence of signs to instability and overall structure, VS single snow pit data points. The snow pony can travel a lot of ground quickly.

The most significant observations and red flags where observed on Easterly terrain. Multiple slopes in the 9,500ft to 10,500ft elevation band produced shooting cracks on slopes 33 degrees or less in steepness. Digging into those cracks showed failures on very small .5mm facets in the middle of the snowpack, or the large grained depth hoar about 30cm’s above the ground. The slopes that produced shooting cracks tended to have slightly more of a NE tilt to them. Traveled on many other NE to SE facing slopes from 9,500ft up to 11,700ft with no obvious red flags to instability. So in the big picture, where the avalanche problem was most sensitive, it didn’t feel very widespread. That may be a true statement, but we should also keep in mind the results could be due to the keeping my exposure relatively low, as getting a full depth result on a bigger slope obviously wouldn’t be worth it. HS in this terrain was generally in the 135 to 165cm range.

Also traveled on a bunch of westerly facing slopes on the other side of the valley. Not a single sign to instability. Previous snowmobile tracks in the terrain also traveled aggressively on some steep slopes below treeline and they didn’t produce any results. CT results in one pit on a westerly slope at 10,200ft produced hard, sudden results on the basal depth hoar and unrepeatable results on small grained facets in the middle of the snowpack. HS was 130cm.

Boot Pen throughout the day was generally 35 to 45cm’s. The Valentine Slab has some good strength to it. Effort is needed to punch through the strong snow to the weaker snow below.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/18/2019
Name: ADB

Subject: Snodgrass
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches:

NA due to poor visibility.

Weather: calm and obsutructed skies. Cold near the East River.

Snowpack: Behind weather station: snow is deepest skied this weekend. Snow is very supportive and there were no signs of instability on ski down. Snow’s loose for top 8 to 10 inches and there’s a firmer layer below that, which we didn’t penetrate on ski down.

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2019
Name: CBAC/CAIC Staff

Subject: Avalanche Fatalities in Brush Creek Preliminary Report
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 9,600ft

Avalanches:

Preliminary Report: On Saturday, February 16, 2019, two backcountry skiers were reported overdue in the Brush Creek drainage, near the town of Crested Butte. The report was made just prior to 8:00 p.m.
Crested Butte Search and Rescue (CB-SAR) sent a hasty team into the field. They discovered tracks into fresh avalanche debris. They did not find tracks exiting the slide but did find faint beacon signals in the slide area. Shortly after midnight, CB-SAR group determined conditions were too dangerous to continue search and rescue operations.
On Sunday, February 17, 2019, a team of six Crested Butte Search and Rescue members were air lifted to the scene by helicopter. An additional team of 5-6 members entered the area by ground. Among the rescue members were representatives of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) and the Crested Butte Avalanche Center along with three Crested Butte Mountain Resort Ski Patrollers whose primary objective was to ensure the area was safe for recovery efforts.
The air transport team quickly located the bodies of the two men as beacon signals were transmitting. At approximately 3:00 p.m. the bodies had been transported by the team to the helicopter landing zone at Brush Creek.
Our deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of the people involved. We will publish more information as it becomes available.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Recent Storm Snow Is Setting Up
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,600-10,900

Avalanches:

A large natural avalanche was observed on a cross-loaded ENE facing slope off of Schuylkill Ridge. This avalanche looked to have ran during the 2/16 storm and appeared to release in the upper snowpack. It further stepped down to deeper week layers in a few places.

Another fresh very large avalanche was viewed on billy bar’s Camara near Schofield Pass. This avalanche failed on a cross-loaded SE facing slope above treeline, and propagated widely across a more south facing bowl.

Weather: Mostly cloudy sky, a few flakes fell, and the winds were calm. Lovely day out there.

Snowpack: Recent storm snow is setting up, with a little fluff on top. Boot pen was around 35-40cm. The crust that formed on 12/15 was down about 10cm’s in the valley, and generally dissipated on the shaded more northerly side of the valley. Didn’t get too closely look at the Valentine interface. No obvious sings to instability where observed. Skiers in the area were skiing wind-loaded terrain that was supported and mostly below 35 degrees in steepness.

The most concerning snowpack encountered was on a more northerly facing slope that had a much shallower snowpack then average due to previous down valley winds this season. Recent storm snows had built a soft 40cm slab over a weak faceted snowpack.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio

Subject: RMBL study plot

Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 02/17/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio

Subject: Snodgrass Obs
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9800

Avalanches:

Natural slide in the aspens lower down on Abbey Lane. Relatively small, but 4ft deep at the crown with large blocky debris. Not a spot I’ve seen run before.

Weather: Very light snow on and off. Sunnier in the afternoon

Snowpack: No obvious signs of instability

Photos: