Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: West of West out by Beckwith
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,300′ to 10, 700′

Avalanches:

one snowmobile triggered slide on small drifted SE slope BTL, D1. two other SE BTL naturals in the area on SE side of East Beckwith, D1. two natural D1.5 on steep east slopes BTL. One snowmobile ride out viewed one small D1 on north aspect of Mt. Axtel below cliff bands in 3rd bowl.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies to start turning mostly cloud skies with very light snow around 2pm.

Snowpack: This area several miles to the west of Kebler Pass on E and N aspects had average HS around 125cm, with one NNW location up to 145cm. Snow depths in this area were less than the Kebler Pass area and more than the far eastern areas like Brush or Cement Creek, closer match to the middle portion of the Gunnison zone like the lower Slate River corridor or Washington Gulch. Several test profiles were performed on SE, NE, and NNW locations. ECT scores showed hard or no result. Inspecting one suspected snowmobile triggered avalanche on a SE slope, the failure occurred on the Thanksgiving interface whereas the NE, and NNW slopes the Holiday interface or higher buried SH will be the interfaces of concern in near term with additional loading. Briefly poked into a very small chunk of a south slope and found HS between 70 and 90cm with stacks of facets and crust with crusts up to 3 cm.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/15/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Surface obs Washington Gultch
Aspect: North East, East, West
Elevation: BTL

Weather: Sky became over cast by 10’ish am. Calm winds. Few flakes started falling at 2pm.

Snowpack: Interesting distribution of SH just below the snow surface. This SH was maybe .5cm down. Some places it was laid over, or poorly preserved, or just not there. In general, it didn’t look like it was going to be a well defined weak layer, but definitely something to keep a close eye on. On East and SE found the SH on top of a crust with a very light dusting of snow over it. These E and SE slope angels were around 30 degrees and I would wonder if it was more cooked off on steeper slopes.

Dug on pit on a ENE, 30 degree slope, at about 10,700ft. HS 120. No SH present on or just below the snow surface. Layer of SH down 20cm. No test results on the NSF below the holiday slab. Similar to this pit on Schuykill, those grains are now 1mm rounding and necking. Future layers of concern would be the upper SH layer, and the 4F depth hoard near the ground.

No collapses or shooting cracks.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject:
Aspect: South, South West, West
Elevation: 10,700 – 12,000′

Avalanches: Viewed two unreported slabs from last weeks storm. One D2, East aspect, 10,200′ near Purple Palace. D2, West aspect 12,800 White Mountain

Weather: Beauty of a day.  Warm air temps near and above treeline with hardly a breath of wind.  Snow surfaces were moist midday on SE-S-SW near treeline and moist on south at 2pm at 12,000′

Snowpack: Travelled through some rolling benchy west facing slopes near treeline and dug test profile and confirmed structure through some other rolling terrain nearby.  This terrain sees less impact from the wind than most west slopes.  Not representative of west slopes in general but only “protected” west where snow is able to stay in place and not drift away.  See photo below

Did some probing into south facing ATL slope along the margins of a large bowl feature.  Areas I was able to poke at showed mostly facets and crusts, no real slab structure at the moment.  The crusts were generally 1 to 3cm thick and not a great structure for significant future loading.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/14/2019
Name: CBPSP

Subject: Phoenix/ Spellbound Bowl CBMR
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 11,000′-10,000′

Avalanches:

AB-SS-R1-D1-O ( 4#AB)

Weather: Clear with strong solar radiation, winds were calm, and temperatures in the low teens throughout the day.

Snowpack: Observed N- NE aspects near and below tree line. In general a VERY WEAK SNOWPACK! Avg. HS 40-50 and up to 125 cm’s with ski pen to the ground. Soar legs with not much to talk about in terms of avalanche activity. Teams were able to trigger small loose dry avalanches in specific steep terrain with explosives. Also observed collapsing and cracking within specific terrain features. Teams also observed wide spread surface hoar through out the terrain. If the forecast produces we will have a problem on terrain at this aspect and elevation the current snow pack will not be able to support any significant load.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2019
Name: AIARE Level 1

Subject: Snodgrass NE
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9400′ – 9800′

Avalanches:

N/O

Weather: Sunny Calm Day, mostly Bluebird

Snowpack: 100-120cm of snow observed. Persistent slab present present in multiple depths of the snowpack. Sudden results from CT’s on deeper layer of facets 2-3 mm, 95 cm down with 4F-F Slabs above. & one propagating result on a buried surface hoar layer of about 5-6 mm SH layer 30-40 cm from surface. F- 4F Soft Slab above this Buried SH. We tracked this SH layer throughout the terrain and seemed to be present from 9800’ – 9400’
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2019
Name: Avy 2 – David Bumgarner

Subject: Snodgrass tour
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10, 192

Avalanches:

We observed a small slide in Abby Lane below the convex roll (photo attached) this slide was not there during our skin up. The skin track was to the skiers left of the slide. It seems that this slide was remotely triggered by the group in front of us.
The slide was on a convex aspect of the slope that was much shallower and steeper (38 degrees) than the rest of the slope. It seemed to be in a cross loaded area.

Weather: Sky: Clear
Air Temp: -4c
Wind: Calm
Precip: None

Snowpack: Pits: These three pits were 5m from each other

HS: 115cm
CT16 SC 28cm down ECTN17 28cm down on buried SH
CT21 SP 63cm down ECTN27 63cm down on buried SH
Basel Facets where working towards rounding

HS: 110cm
CT11 SC 30cm down
CT19 SC 62cm down ECTP31 SC?

HS: 100cm
CT22SC 25cm down ECTN16
CT26cm 48cm down ECTN26
Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Few clouds, calm and a couple fresh inches. Ruby Range.
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 10,500-13,000

Avalanches:

Small sluffs

Weather: Few clouds and calm winds. That sun was out in force, but air temps still felt cool.

Snowpack: No formal stability tests preformed, and no obvious signs to instability observed. Used a snowmobile on steep, easterly, convex slopes between 10,000 and 11,000ft with no obvious sings to instability. Skied aggressive NE and E facing terrain in the alpine with no obvious sings to instability. Managed terrain with trigger points and additional wind-loading in mind.

2-3″ of new, very light snow, was evenly distributed in the terrain. On wind-exposed ridge lines this most recent snow hadn’t been blown around. The main wind-loading in the terrain came from the 1/6 storm and its westerly winds. NE slopes got the most loading. S slopes had both been blown up, and cross loaded. West slopes were windblown near rigeline, but had good coverage lower on slopes with wind-texture on the surface. NE slopes had some wind pillows, but cornices were surprisingly small. The last round of E to NE winds drifted an extra inch back the other way but it didn’t matter.

Below the 2-3″ of new snow, the 1/6 snow felt dense with ski pen around 10cm.

Photos:

Smaller then average cornices on this NE terrain at 13,000ft that has big fetches on both its south and west sides.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/13/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio

Subject: Remote Trigger on Snodgrass
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,000

Avalanches:

Remote triggered a D1 persistent slab avalanche below the snodgrass/gothic saddle. Triggered from about 100ft away on the second lap of the day. Ran pretty deep in the snowpack

Weather: Bluebird day

Snowpack: No obvious signs of instability on skin track and on first lap
Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/12/2019
Name: Joey Carpenter

Subject:
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9300-10400

Avalanches:

No fresh avalanches. One near Pittsburg on NW aspect crown at 9800ft. 3ish days old. D1.5 but ran into tree stands below. Also two photos of climax crowns and debris piles as we caught a little sun on the way out. Evan reported both of these during the storm early this week.

Weather: S-1 snowfall for a good bit of the day. Minimal accumulation. Calm winds. Overcast, a few spots of sun did peek through in the morning.

Snowpack: N aspect 10.4k HS 195cm. Quick pit showed both mid-dec SH layers that appear to be decaying. CT26SCQ1 55cm down on dec SH. Additional loading steps after the upper slab was removed didn’t produce results on deeper interfaces. Surface snow was set up and surfy. Only about 6 inches ski pen. Stuck to slopes in the low-mid 30s, no SSx of instability.
Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 01/12/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject:
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,000-11,300

Weather: Mostly cloudy and snowing S-1 for a good bit of the day. Couple inches of new snow over the last 24hr. Clam winds.

Snowpack: No collapses or obvious signs to instability. Traveling on slopes in the upper 30 degree range at all elevations traveled. Previous ski tracks in the area where on similar slopes in the upper 30 degree range and skiing through previously wind-loaded terrain. HS was generally in the 130cm range.

Dug once at about 10,000ft. NE, 30 degree slope. HS 125. ECTN just below the 1/6 storm snow on 2mm SH. ECTP H on the 4F facets near the ground. No ECT or CT results below the holiday slab in the middle of the snowpack where many recent avalanches have been failing. The old NFS grains at this interface were 1mm and progressing towards rounds with necking forming between the grains.

Photos: