Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/07/2019
Name: Finn Smith
Subject: Road Side Slide
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,000ft
Avalanches:
bent trees, went to ground and broke at the bottom and second layer.
Weather: Lots of snow
Snowpack:
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/07/2019
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: visible avalanches with poor light
Avalanches:
Red ridge to WSC peak ridge had numerous slide. Unemployment Chute significant slide. Phoenix on Gibson ridge released really big for the path – trimmed fresh timber. A glimpse into Red Lady Bowl looked like major bowl width slide. Climax failed impressively. Slope below and above SE end of Long Lake. Two paths on Whetstone between x chutes and Barcelona Bowl looked to have knocked down a few trees. Several other deep crowns below treeline in strange spots. Vis was poor and it sure looked like there was destruction in other places with trees missing and skid marks in basins but could not see well enough to confirm maybe tomorrow.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/06/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Red Lady Bowl Avalanche
Avalanches:
Red Lady Bowl ran naturally on Wednesday 3/6. The weather has made taking pictures of this avalanche difficult. This avalanche is estimated to have run close to 80% of its total potential avalanche path and was very large and destructive in size.
The pictures below are the toe of the avalanche debris and another avalanche that failed sympathetically on a steep SE facing slope. The crown of this sympathetic avalanche is estimated at 2.5ft and probably failed around the 2/28th interface.
Also, a couple small storm slab avalanches where seen along Kebler Pass Rd near Crested Butte. 5 to 6″ deep failing on 40 degree, northerly facing terrain.
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/06/2019
Name: Petar
Subject: Roofalanche
Aspect: North West
Elevation: 9440
Avalanches:
Weather: Stormy and quite warm – about 35 F, strong winds from the SW.
link to file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mcm4dhz6xuixtqi/roofalanche.mp4?dl=0
The video was sped up, but it took about 25 min to record it, approximately around 3-3.30pm.
Snowpack:
Photos:
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/06/2019
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: storm snow piling up
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9,200′ – 10,600′
Avalanches:
Numerous natural D1 storm slabs running within the storm snow. Above Kebler TH there was a D2 Persistent Slab that i would guess failed on the 2/28 interface on a SE aspect in the steep gully just below the RL skin track – roughly 3 feet deep crown. Two D1 avalanches on crossloaded SW facing features.
Weather: Consistent snow all day with s1 to s3 snow during the day. New snow mostly rimed PP transitioning to graupel by afternoon. Winds out of the SW were light with moderate gusting in AM, around 1PM winds picked up to moderate speeds with strong gusting. Lots of transport observed in the afternoon from SWerly winds. New snow total reached 13″ at 4pm. Snow was thick and became top heavy in the afternoon from warming temps and graupel precip.
Snowpack: Density change in storm snow was apparent from numerous hasty hand tests. Lots of sloughing with minimal cracking and propagation in new snow in the sheltered terrain we traveled.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/05/2019
Name: Steve Banks
Subject: Gothic Valley
Aspect: North East, South
Elevation: 9,400-10,600
Avalanches:
No new avalanches were observed today. We got a little peak at the crown of the North Bowl of Gothic which hit the Judd Falls toilets. Photo attached.
Weather: Sunny and warm in the morning with increasing high clouds. Intense solar radiation. S-1 at 7 pm. Ligh Westerly winds and some wind transport on alpine peaks.
Snowpack: South Aspect: Soft 2-4 cm crus from yesterday softened in today’s warmth. Upper 4 cms of snow became moist again and made for good hot pow skiing. HST sits around 60 cms on average. Below lies 1-3 different crust layers with notable facets surrounding. Basel facets exist below a 30 cm 1F slab, though they are rounded and 4F+. CTM results on upper crust (2/28 interface) resident planer and did not produce in Extended Column tests.
North East Aspect:
Dug 1 test profile and a crown profile on the only observed avalanche on Snodgrass at 9,600 feet. Avalanche broke on deep persistent layers at 40 cms above the ground in an isolated location 40 degrees in steepness. Resulting avalanche had a crown just under 2 meters deep, 30 meters wide and D2 in size (photo attached).
Both profiles showed CTM results within the new snow at a density change. Neither produced in Extendd Column tests.
Photos:
Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/04/2019
Name: Travis Tucker
Subject: Brush Creek Rd Above Death Pass
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation: 9,400’
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack: Windloaded and heavily corniced.
Photos:
Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/04/2019
Name: Travis Tucker
Subject: Weekend at the Friends Hut
Aspect: South East
Elevation: 11,490 —> 12,600
Avalanches:
SS-NSU-R3 D3-I (but stepped down into old) SE face of Carbonate @ 12,600’ SZ Lrg SS avs observed on Timber Hill Chutes on exit.
Weather: We measured snow fall using H2D at Friends Hut from 3/1 to 3/4 and recorded 48” of snow. Sky was OVC —> OBS until Monday. Light to Moderate winds with strong gusts throughout weekend from SW —> NW. S-1 —> S-Nukin for most of weekend. Avalanches observed with better vis on Monday.
Snowpack: Hasty Pit. See photo. HS 225. PF Thigh. Storm Slab was reactive while PS was stubborn to CT, ECT.
CTE 7 RP Q2 & ECTN 12 d20 cm on 4mm DF
PST 45/100 (SF) d60cm on MFcr
Photos:
Location: Kebler Pass Area & avi obs from all over fx area
Date of Observation: 03/04/2019
Name: Eric Murrow and Zach Kinler
Subject:
Aspect: North East, South East
Elevation: 9,000-10,000
Avalanches: Numerous avalanches around the fx area. Reasonable viewing in the AM. Roughly 10 D2.5-D3 slides around the area; dozens of D2. Avalanches observed on many aspects and elevations but most activity was near and above treeline (drifting) on N-E-S. See pictures below for sampling.
Weather: Partly Cloudy skies at trailhead to Overcast skies and low clouds near the pass. Temps in the mid to upper 20s, light westerly winds below tree line with moderate winds and blowing snow near and above treeline.
Snowpack: Digging on the sunny side and shady side in the lower Elk Creek area we found 60 cm-75 cm recent storm snow since 2/28. This thick dense snow was moistened and forming a crust on southerly slopes > 20 deg., while staying dry and right side up, with several storm density changes, on a North East aspect. Ski pen ~15-20 cm with boot pen ~55 cm. ECTN results in storm snow density changes, and ECTX at all other deeper interfaces in both profiles. No major cracking or collapsing. Percolation columns were observed under the 2/28 crust on South.
Photos:
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/04/2019
Name: Steve Banks
Subject: Gothic Valley Obs
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,400
Avalanches:
Several avalanche observations from D1 persistent slabs to D4 wind slabs in the Gothic Valley:
Numberous D1s on steep banks of East River. These ran on or near the ground. It did appear as though these areas had little snow previously, so perhaps repeat offenders? North and NE aspects
Large crowns noted on Easterly aspects of Mt. Belleview and Avery Peak. Steep wind loaded terrain with wide propagation, likely D3 or greater in size.
2 slabs noted on lower flanks of WSC Peak, S-SW aspects, D2. Notably, these seemed to have failed at the new snow/old snow interface as the bed surface appeared to be the old crust (2/28)
We observed the debris from previously reported East Face of Gothic slides. Whoa. Big time debris with lost of mature timber knocked down and water pushed out of the river. Heard the North Bowl of Gothic also ran today around 1 pm and hit the Judd Falls TH toilets again.
Weather: Sunny morning with increasing clouds and strong orographic snow showers and winds in the afternoon. Temps got warm with strong solar. Afternoon winds picked up from the West and transporting snow in the peaks was noted all day. Surprisingly heavy snowfall began around 3 pm and continued to 6 pm. 2” accumulate quickly.
Snowpack: The new snow is settle in quickly with ski pen half of yesterday, around 15 cms today. Snow surface became moist on SE-S facing slopes and will have a crust tomorrow. Storm totals in the 100 cm range and fairly evenly distributed. Total HS 140-208 cms. Digging to the ground in a flat location at 9,400 showed a very dense slab resting over sugary facets at the bottom.
Photos:
