Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/22/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Normal Caution and Managing Thin Snowpack Areas Or Trigger Points
Aspect: North East, East, South
Elevation: 10,000-13,000

Avalanches:

Couple of small and fresh loose wet avalanches were seen on some NTL Easterly terrain. Otherwise just the old destruction.

Weather: Partly cloudy with convective type weather. Few snow squalls that didn’t add up to any measurable new snow. About 1″ new snow from last night. Light winds with some moderate gusts.

Snowpack: Variable snowpack hight given the amount of terrain that has avalanched in the last couple weeks. Better off trying to measure HS down in the lower valleys, but you’ll have to make sure there isn’t a big pile of debris down there. Some very thin and small soft slabs at upper elevations, otherwise normal caution. Todays solar and heat was just enough to warm snow surfaces and bake that trace of new snow into the old snow on east to south to west.
Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/21/2019
Name: Zach Kinler

Subject: Weekly Snowpack/Weather Summary

• Weekly-Summary-Mar-15-21-2019.pdf

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/21/2019
Name: Zach Kinler

Subject: Elkton Study Plot
Aspect:
Elevation: 10,400

Avalanches: No new

Weather: Partly Cloudy to Overcast through day. High topped out ~40F with intense solar during sunny times. Light southerly breeze increasing with clouds and snowfall by 17:00

Snowpack: HS: 264, 2/28 Interface down 110 cm from surface. 2 soft MFcr in upper 20cm which were wet and decaying. 2 ice lenses @ 23 cm and 41 cm from surface. Percolation tubes were widespread and stout above upper lens but more subtle above the lower lens. Moist snow to ~51 cm from surface.

Basal layers looking more like rounds than rounding DH. 1F-P hard and moist.

Snowpack temps near freezing at ground and at surface with mid pack only down to -3.0 C.

Small slightly rounded facets above 2/28 crust. Prying of test columns would produce planar break at this interface but not super concerning.

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/18/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: Shallow east side below treeline
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9,000′ to 11,000′

Avalanches:  A couple of wet loose D1’s and a D2 on the south side of Teo – looked to have run 3/16 or 3/17.
Got a good look at a very large slide that failed around 3/7ish on the south side of Teo that mowed down a good grip of Aspens. The meadows below Teo have taken a beating between the January ’17 and March ’19 avalanche cycles!

Weather: Clear skies to start the morning with building clouds by noon and mostly cloudy skies by 230. Temperatures were warm and with solar in AM were able to soften E-S slopes below treeline. As clouds moved in midday, the winds also picked up a bit BTL to low 10’s.

Snowpack: Moved through shallow below treeline terrain in Brush Creek and dug a few test profiles near existing crowns that failed around 3/7. HS on E-S-W aspects ranged from 150 to 175. Each hole I poked in the area had 30 to 45cm of moist rounding DH at the ground. Each site also had Pencil hard snow in the middle third of the snowpack-really dense slab. No surprise with ECTX at each site.

The avalanches on E and NE in the area looked to have failed on the basal weak layer. Inspected one old slide to confirm and referenced the visual depths of other crowns. The avalanches on SW and W looked to have failed at two depths- near the 2/28 interface or in the basal weak layer. Locations with HS below roughly 170cm have just over a meter slab resting on very weak basal snow. I would expect to find this structure throughout lower Brush and Cement Creeks and other locations down valley from CB.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/18/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio

Subject: RMBL Study Plot
Aspect:
Elevation: 9500

Avalanches:

Weather:

Snowpack:
Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: S and SW below treeline and other tidbits
Aspect: South, South West
Elevation: 8900′ – 10,800′

Avalanches:

Got a view of a cornice failure off of Scarps ridge the triggered a D1.5/D2 sized slab.

Weather: Beautiful day with clear skies, warm temps, and light winds.

Snowpack: Traveled through S and SW terrain below treeline. Early in the morning surface crust were supportive to skis. As the day warmed up surface crust broke down by about 1pm on SE aspect at 10,500′. HS on this protected slope was 190cm. Top 12cm or so became wet with the buried 3/12 crust started to soften as well. Perc tubes were present between the 3/12 and 3/6 crust. The 3/6 crust was down just 45cm. Snow below 3/6 was moist halfway down to 2/28 crust.

Descended a SW slope, very near a couple of D3 slides that failed around 3/7, and found that this slide likely failed in faceted snow below the 2/28 crust. HS through the start zones looked relatively shallow from wind this season and bed surfaces were very shallow will lots of grass and rock sticking out. We were able to trigger very small wet loose slides, and pinwheels by about 3pm on these slopes. By about 10,000′, the snowpack on SW was wet at the surface with a moist, soft crust below and moist snow all the way down to the lowest crust with very weak faceted snow at the ground. HS was generally around 130ish cm through this terrain.

Got views of snowmo highmarks in an alpine bowl with S through SE aspects. Half of this bowl failed around 3/6 or 3/7 in a very large D3 avalanche. The highmarks hit the drifted in bed surface and the intact portion of the bowl without results.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/17/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Richmond, Handcock, And Some Loose Wets 
Elevation: 9,500-12,400

Avalanches:

The natural Loose Wet avalanche cycle is mostly confined to SE-SW. While E and W aspects are starting to produce more natural Loose Wet avalanches and have become a concern for skier triggering. These loose wet avalanches may be powerful given the type, but are easy to manage or know when to avoid. Mostly D1.5’s with a few D2’s. With Continued heating NE slopes may become more of a concern. Saw most of the Loose Wet avalanche activity at near and above treeline elevations.

Weather: Clear, beautiful and sunburnt with calm winds.

Snowpack: The quiet snowpack continues. Managing thin snowpack spots, overhead cornice hazard and loose wet avalanches. The upper snowpack is showing runnels on southerly slopes as water starts to drain through the upper snowpack. These were seen up to 12,000ft. Water had wetted the 3/11 curst down 45cms on the one southerly slope checked at 11,000ft

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/16/2019
Name: Eric Murrow

Subject: West Side
Aspect:
Elevation: 8,900′ – 11,000′

Avalanches:

Numerous D1 loose went avalanches from the previous day on sunny near and above treeline slopes. Evidence of very large, but old avalanches from over a week ago – crowns well drifted in. There were a few more recent avalanches from the middle of last week during the last snowfall and wind event around 3/13- D2.5/D3 failing in old snow on the west side of Mt. Owen ATL, D2.5 on easterly piece of terrain on East Beckwith failing in old snow NTL, and a D1.5 on north facing ATL slope on East Beckwith that failed only in last weeks storm snow and was triggered by a dry slough.

Second hand report of skier triggered slide on SE aspect.  ~2 to 3 foot crown likely drifted slope from north winds middle of last week, probably failing on 3/12 interface during warm part of the day.

Weather: Clear skies with light winds. Strong solar and mild temps softening snow surfaces by noon.

Snowpack: Took a trip to the far west side of the forecast area. Down at Horse Ranch Park area, HS averaged around 180cm @ 8,900′. Ascending to Beckwith Pass area found HS around 280cm at 10,500′. Dug a couple quick holes looking for any concerning structure on shaded slopes in the upper snowpack but not notable test results or layers of concern. Like much of the range, weak layers are down near the bottom of the snowpack-you could feel density change by using probe.

Snow surfaces began to soften by noon or a bit earlier. Watched a few very small loose wet snow release from steep rocky east facing features. Digging into wetted surfaces on sunny slopes showed soft F density snow beneath the surface crust.

Photos:

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/16/2019
Name: Evan Ross

Subject: Small Loose Wet Avalanches
Aspect:
Elevation: 9,200-11,700

Avalanches:

Small Loose Wet Avalanches mainly near and above treeline on SE to SW. Up to D1.5 in size.

Many other old crowns all over the place.

Weather: Clear, calm, and strong solar. Lips got burnt but not so bad I couldn’t hit some spicy food.

Snowpack: Nothing significant or new
Photos: