Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/26/2018
Name: CBAC

Subject: East-South East NTL Purple Palace Zone
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: 10,300′

Avalanches:

Observed a few small remains of some size .5-1 storm slabs that ran mid storm.

Weather: Nice sunny day with some clouds lingering to the NW. Temperatures remained in the 20’s today, but the solar radiation was intense throughout the mid part of the day. Winds remained calm down low and light at ridge tops until around 3PM then winds increased slightly with light snowfall increasing until last observed at 4 PM.
Snowpack: Snow depths NTL we found the avg. depth to be around 100cm . Solar radiation was intense the top 10 cm of the pack was WET! gloppy wet on E-SE aspects mid-day. On Specific wind loaded features east to southeast, we found a 1F slab over weak rounded facets below a crust on the December 19th layer around 2′ down. This is a layer of concern to keep an eye on as more possible snow or wind transport puts more weight on this interface. Three different ECT tests all resulted with propagation ECT 14-17. The crust was not as well developed on E but as we wrapped around more SE there was a distinct crust sandwich coated and filled with facets. Observed a small portion of N aspect NTL the slab was not as present there, the N aspect snow stayed cold throughout the day and lacked a reactive slab structure in the upper snowpack.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/25/2018
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: North Below Treeline
Aspect: North, South
Elevation: 10,200-11,200

Avalanches:

Red Lady Bowl and south face of Ruby showed similar fresh avalanches from the end of the storm or overnight. Both were mid slope, storm slabs and looked to be small D2’s confined to the upper snowpack.

Weather: Mostly sunny with passing clouds. Cold in the morning with temps on the teens and warming through the day. Southerly winds at ridgetop blowing 20 mph and moving snow.
Snowpack: New snow averaged 10” and beginning to settle and consolidate some. Below teeeline N was still soft and good skiing, but on South it was becoming wet on the surface.
1 quick pit North faceing at 10,600’ showed 30 cms of new Christmas snow. A well consolidated 1F to Pencil slab below with 15-20 cms of large faceted grain near the ground. This layer was 4F to 1F and capped with stronger snow. HS of 130 cms.
Shovel tilt test revealed a clear shear about an inch or so below the new snow. Likely one of our buried surface hoar layers though it was difficult to see the SH. ECT showed a moderate failure in the midpack with no propagation.
Near treeline South winds were creating thick windslabs in the top of the starting zones. Some localized cracking noted.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/25/2018
Name: Evan Ross

Subject:
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,000-11,200

Avalanches:

Observed previous avalanche activity in the last 24:
Natural D2 slab in RLB, SE Mt Emmons ATL.
Couple of Natural D1.5 loose snow avalanches in N facing Red well Basin.
Several natural loose snow avalanches in steep terrain BTL.

Weather: Broken cloud cover with enough sun and green housing to crust up those southerly facing slopes. Saw a few snow plumes off the higher points but on this tour the winds were calm.
Snowpack: For Jesus’ birthday in 2018 he said, Evan, I give you an avalanche problem free tour. Well, thats kind of what happened. The universe told me I wasn’t allowed to skin until late afternoon. So in the afternoon we crushed up some crusty south from 9,000ish feet to 11,000ft. Here the snowpack structure sucks for the future when we get bigger load, but for now it was a non issue in this terrain that didn’t have previous wind-loading. Couple notes in pics below for more information on that. For the same elevation change on the northeast side of the compass, we got a quick decent before the sun said it was the end of Jesus’ birthday. Played it real safe on the more NTL type terrain. Some hard ski cuts just off the ridge didn’t produce jack. Those cuts would have been in the thickest part of the slab for what it’s worth. Transitioning into the more BTL type terrain, the HS decreased as did the snowpack structure. Basically soft snow over weak snow. Some sluffing in steep terrain, but didn’t see any shooting cracks as I would have expected. I guess Jesus just had our back.

Photos:

N

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/24/2018
Name: Alex Tiberio

Subject: Snodgrass obs
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 10,000

Avalanches:

Ski cut and triggered a couple small storm slabs on slopes over 35 degrees.

Weather: Snowing all day. 8” new snow
Snowpack:

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/24/2018
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Christmas eve Keebler Pass powder day
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 10,000′ – 11,500′

Avalanches:

Observed on skier triggered slab in steep protected terrain, D1 in size. Part of this side only released storm snow and in a few places a second interface was visible which I assume to be 12/19.
Intentionally triggered a D1 loose avalanche on a steep south facing slope, ran around 300 vertical feet.

Weather: Overcast skies with S1 to S2 snow for much of the day. Winds were light with moderate gusting at ridge top, some transport was observed.
Snowpack: New snow accumulation at 11,250 at 315 pm was 11 inches. Drifting through terrain travelled was limited and isolated to ridge top only. Storm instability was present towards bottom 1/3 of storm snow but produced little more than slight cracking. 12/19 interface was down just over 30cm in most locations.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/23/2018
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Upper Slate pre-storm look around
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,700′ to 11,400′

Avalanches:

One fresh natural avalanche below treeline immediately above valley bottom. NW winds blowing down valley were able to crossload a small terrain feature. D1 in size but put a bit of debris in the creek bottom.

Weather: Partly cloudy skies filtering the sun, increasing throughout the day. Air temps were on the cooler side of things. Winds were light with moderate gusts out of the NW in the BTL and NTL terrain we travelled through. Snow was being transported in the alpine on to E and S aspects during the day.

Snowpack: In general, the snowpack was becoming weaker and more faceted in most locations. Winds have done a number on open terrain even well below treeline close to valley bottoms.
While ascending very open easterly terrain around 30 degrees, average HS around 70cm, there was a thin 1.5 cm breaker crust below the most recent snow of a few inches. Facets below this crust were obvious and the snowpack structure beneath still possessed some hardness around 4f but was faceting. Only isolated deeper drifted spots held onto 1 finger hardness.
At around 11,300′ poked into a few NE and N aspects and found HS closer to 110cm. The Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving storms still had 1finger hardness resting upon basal rounding basal facets. Nothing really surprising about this structure. Beneath the 5 or 6 inches of new snow were near surface facets that in one drifted spot produced cracking up to 10ft on a steep roll.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/23/2018
Name: Joey Carpenter

Subject: Anthracite Mesa
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 10200-11200

Avalanches:

East face of Cinnamon R3D2. Natural. ~700 feet wide, ran ~400 vert . ATL.

Weather: Temps around 1 degree before sunshine hit valley bottoms but quickly warmed up to cool but pleasant temps. FEW, low clouds to the west, CLR to the east. Light winds where we were but moderate snow transport observed along ridgelines and high peaks in the morning (Scarps, Richmond, Cinnamon, Baldy).
Snowpack: HS 11k E aspect, 70cm. 2-3mm facets bottom 10cm of spx. 4F hardness for next ~40cm then F until the surface.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/23/2018
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: The New and Still Developing Persistent Slab. Santas Persistent Slab
Aspect: East, South, West
Elevation: Mostly BTL/NTL 9,500-11,800

Avalanches:

One natural D1 on a cross loaded easterly aspect at 9,900ft.

Weather: NTL the winds were just gusting to moderate with some blowing snow at times. In the Alpine it looked like less blowing snow than I would have thought. Definitely stronger winds in the alpine and the drifting snow may have been hard to see with the gray’ish light.
Snowpack: No current signs to instability observed on this particular tour. Cut some good wind-loaded terrain but no results. Never did find wind-loading greater than about 20cm so maybe not the most suspect areas.

Tracked the new and developing PSa avalanche problem on the 12/19 interface. Santas Persistent Slab. See notes on pictures.

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/22/2018
Name: IG

Subject: Irwin Cat Ski Obs
Aspect:
Elevation:

Avalanches:

D1’s in Sunset L&R, Round 2, and Assassins.

Small shallow D.5 slow movers in Thornton’s Glade, JA Steep, Not 2 D.
Moonrise Right SS-ASc-R2-D1.5-S PP (20cm x 30m x 35m) Ski cut in moonrise right propagated into moonrise left

Weather: Snowy and Windy with gusty whiteout conditions in the am calming throughout the day. WSW winds though saw evidence of northerly swirling around in Robinson Basin.

Snowpack: The wind picked up early morning and inverted the snowpack with denser snow above
lighter snow. The wind did a number this morning with scouring and drifting at all elevations. Widespread cracking and wind slab development. The Upper Westwall (Moonrise & Sunset) had 20-30cm wind slabs touchy and propagating wide with Several remote triggers. No obvious facets but all running on storm snow density
change. Round two below Moonrise and sunset very touch. Outer Limits shooting cracks but limited movement.
Surhan, Oswald, and Booth all cleaned out full width just stepping on top. Lower and mid west wall produced
cracking with much shallower results and less significant movement, though Thornton’s Glade still produced a
D1. Whiskey/Vodka Shots have a double crust in the top 20 cm’s from 12/19 & 12/21.

Photos: