Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/06/2020
Subject: 2nd Bowl Snodgrass
Aspect: East
Elevation: ~10000

Avalanches: Small shallow slide observed on the ridgeline to the skiers left of 2nd Bowl entrance. I took an alternate route down and did not get a great visual but appeared to be natural, R1D1 and very close to the location of the much larger 2-18 Snodgrass slide.

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/05/2020
Name: Joey Carpenter
Subject: Cornice Triggered Avalanche Mt Owen
Aspect: North, North East, South
Elevation: 11.4-12.8

Avalanches: Large cornice fall (estimated) late yesterday triggered widely propagating slab in recent storm snow. R2D2.5 The spx in the E facing gut off Owen was basically destroyed from the massive blocks running through. First photo from toe of debris pile shows the multiple smaller storm slabs that released as a result of the massive impact from the cornice failure. Second photo from the bench below Scarps Ridge shows the lower storm slab released by the huge chunks bouncing (bounce impressions indicated in green) past the end of the debris pile, over the next roll and onto the bench (blocks indicated in orange). The last photo, with sled for reference, shows how large these pieces were (these are the blocks indicated in orange in previous photo). The three remaining chunks that hadn’t been destroyed over their 1500 vertical foot journey downhill were still about the size of small sedans.

Weather: Single digits to start the day at the TH but rapid warming. By the time we were on our second ascent of the morning, it was skinning/booting in tshirt weather. Snow near rock out croppings was beginning to let go although we didn’t observe any rollers from snow surface warming.

Snowpack: Southern ascent held a firm base, with boot top penetration through a ~5cm breakable crust. N & NE snow surfaces have settled to 7-9 inches of snow and feel much more “wintery” than solar exposures. Overall supportive spx with no underfoot signs to instability. The cornice fall did indicate there are still some surface slabs that could potentially release but may require intense impact to do so.

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Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/04/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Skier Triggered Avalanche Site Visit
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9,800′

Avalanches: Investigated the skier triggered avalanche above Long Lake. Aspect of avalanche was E and ENE. A side view slope angle estimate put the average steepness around 37 degrees. Crown depth along the flank (appeared to be near the average) was ~50cm. Total snowpack depth along flank was only about 125cm. The avalanche failed in a layer of weak faceted snow beneath a thin soft crust. The slab itself was relatively soft with hand hardness up to 4finger. Debris piled up deeply on the lake ice up to ~280cm in some places because of the abrupt change from steep slope to a completely flat lake surface.

The site of this avalanche is a good representation of a below treeline location that can still produce a dangerous avalanche. Relatively shallow snowpack, generally less than 140cm, with a soft slab present resenting on a pronounced weak layer.

Weather: Clear and warm with very light wind.

Snowpack: Overall the snowpack was very weak in this area; a ski pole, basket side down, could penetrate the snowpack full depth.

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Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/03/2020
Name: Daniel
Subject: Skier triggered slide above long lake
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9800

Avalanches: Skier dropped off East facing ridge, triggered slide below wind loaded convexity beneath Aspen stand. No idea who skier was, noticed from meridian neighborhood. Large slide, tracks appear outthe bottom towards Washington gulch trailhead. May go up there with a beacon anyway.

**CBAC forecaster note** – a single track was observed entering slide and a single track was visible leaving the debris pile on the lake by observers other than reporting party

Photos:

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 03/03/2020
Name: Tim
Subject: Snowmobile Remote Triggered Avalanche
Aspect: East
Elevation: 10,700

Avalanches:
Evans Basin
SS-AMr-R2-D1.5-I
35cmx50m (guesstimate)

Weather: CLR

Snowpack: Mixed bag of snow quality with cold dry, heavy wet, and thin crust.

Photos:

Location: Brush Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/03/2020
Subject: Fresh Natural in West Brush
Aspect: West
Elevation: 11000

Avalanches: Natural. Looks to have run late 3/2 or morning of 3/3 See pic. Also appears that the south face of Teo went again.

Weather: Clear skies. Moderate winds low in the valley to higher gusts in the alpine. Moving snow on ridge tops. Wind eased off by 1:00pm.

Snowpack: Mixed bag

Photos:

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 03/02/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Cement Creek
Aspect: North, South, South West, North West
Elevation: 9000-11000

Avalanches: Pretty solid avalanche Gibson Ridge midday observed. Failed as storm slab or dry loose sluff and stepped down. Expanded from initial small storm slab observed 0800 to larger secondary avalanche midday. Debris looked size 2.  Also worth noting the moving snow scoured into older snow near the ground as it ran.  (previously observed, but different photo felt helpful)

Weather: Orographic and convective snow showers made their way out to cement during the afternoon, not enough to produce much additional accumulation, but enough to obscure surrounding terrain, unfortunately.

Snowpack: 6-8″ of new snow resting on top of mainly 3-6cm melt freeze crust from days prior. New snow seemed to be insulating crusts a bit and the crust interface was moist. South-facing areas new snow had cooked and consolidated to ~4″ and aside from some small sluffing, posed no threat in terrain traveled. Winds had transported new snow a bit in more exposed areas, 1-2 foot slabs directly adjacent to exposed ridges, 4F with some cracking extending 5-10ft in front of skis. Overall structure remains concerning on all but true south in cement area with 4mm depth hoar below slabs 1-3 feet deep. Lower elevation south-facing not all that concerning as much of those aspects are starting to really cook-off and consolidate

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Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 03/02/2020
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: Storm Day Obs
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: 9000′ – 10500′

Avalanches: Visibility was obscured and/or teasing all day with tough definition out Slate River Corridor. Smallish debris piles beneath Climax observed but could not confirm if Loose Dry avalanches or Storm Slabs. Lots of small Dry Loose avalanches observed near valley bottoms on steep shaded terrain. Observed two Storm Slabs on up-valley end of Schuylkill Ridge, D1’s. These looked to be half-filled in when observed in the PM.

On a drive up to Snodgrass TH in the evening just before sunset I was able to spy a few more significant slab avalanches above the Gothic Corridor. A real smorgasbord of avalanches…mostly dry loose, one obvious Wind Slab, Storm Slabs, and a Persistent Slab triggered by a shallow Storm Slab. Nearly all avalanche were D1-1.5 with only two slides reaching D2 in size.

Overall visibility greatly limited observations of the days natural avalanche activity.

Weather: Mostly cloudy skies from 1030am to 430pm out Slate River. Light snowfall was continuous throughout the day. At 130pm measured 19″ of new snow with 1.3″SWE (10500′). Winds were light at valley bottoms, but you could hear stronger winds at ridge tops.  Storm snow was noticeably settling during the day.  1.5″ snow accumulated between 11am and 4pm.

At sunset with better visibility, I could see active transport on to SE aspects on Red Ridge above Gothic. Alpine terrain in this area looked to have experienced a good amount of snow transport during the storm.

Snowpack: There was a clear density change in the bottom half of the new snow that was presumably responsible for the Storm Slab avalanches observed. It was easy to find this layer with simple hand shear tests, but even on steeper rolls around 35ish degrees, there was almost no cracking in the storm snow. Cracks never shot more than 2 or 3 feet.

Superficially touched a few SE below treeline slopes and found the new snow resting on a 3cm melt/freeze crust from this past weekend’s warm and sunny weather. Bonding between the new and old snow appeared to be good on these slick surfaces at this location.

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Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/02/2020
Subject: Storm Slabs on Snodgrass
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East
Elevation: 10,000

Avalanches:  Easy to skier trigger storm slabs on E facing terrain over 35 degrees. On N/NE it was running more like a slough. A few storm slabs ran naturally on SE aspects

Weather: Warm temps whenever the sun came out, Occasional snow showers

Snowpack: 11″ New snow overnight. Storm snow was cold and dry in the shade, but starting to get pretty dense and slab up wherever the sun touched it

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 03/02/2020
Name: CT
Subject: CGibson Ridge avalanche
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: 9200

Avalanches: Observed natural avalanche on the S end of Gibson Ridge this morning.

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