Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2019
Name: steve banks
Subject: Gothic Obs
Aspect: North, East, South East
Elevation: 9,500

Avalanches: Minimal visibility so not much seen. The following avalanches appeared to run toward the end of the storm on Saturday based on the refill.
East Bowl Gothic R1-D2 Storm Slab
Quigley Creek Baldy r2-D2 Storm Slab
Northern /east facing bowl on Gothic: R3-D2 Persistent Slab
Snodgrass: 5 individual avalanches running on basel facets with crowns up to a meter deep. All of them ran just on the lower edge of the dark timber from 1st bowl through Abbey Lane. R1-D2’s

Weather: Much colder today with overcast skies. It spat snow around 1 pm and seemed like it was gonna giver er a go, but then stopped. Calm winds, no sun.

Snowpack: Settled storm snow about 10-14″ in the Gothic area. Buried surface hoar present and reactive in snowpack tests. Minimal basel facets on East and West facing slopes, musta melted off more in this valley. Still there tho.

Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Slate River Avalanches
Aspect: North East
Elevation: BTL/NTL

Avalanches: This short afternoon tour revealed plenty of recent avalanche carnage in the Slate River. These avalanches likely failed some time on 12/14. NE facing aspects were again the bullseye for activity, at both BTL and NTL, or both sheltered and wind-loaded slopes. The crown heights closer to Crested Butte looked a little smaller, while the crowns I got closer to in the Paradise Divide area, were about 1m deep on average. These avalanches were failing at the ground in the well-developed Facets and Depth Hoar. Many crowns were soft-looking as more recent snow and the wind was trying to hide them. It is certainly possible that some avalanches ran on mid-pack persistent week layers, but more investigation is necessary to make that determination. Avalanche size was mostly in the D2 range. Some smaller and some slightly larger.

Lots of interesting pocket avalanches and crown lines along Climax and Schuylkill Ridge that would be interesting to see why those crown lines failed the way they did. SH distributions, or old snow distribution maybe? The largest avalanches I observed were in the Purple Ridge Area. Of particular note, the palace proper looked to have several deep crowns spread through the main avalanche paths.

All in all, visibility sucked. Crown lines were already getting soft looking and debris were difficult see with these conditions. NE was the bullseye.

Weather: Overcast, light snow adding up to an inch or so, calm winds, and dropping temperatures.

Snowpack: The recent snow has really set up. Ski Pen 15 and Boot Pen 60cm. HS was now in the 100cm to 165cm range on the slopes we traveled. No obvious signs to instability.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio
Subject: Snodgrass Obs
Aspect: North East

Elevation: 10,000
Avalanches:

Spotted 6 R1D1/2 slides on snodgrass between 1st bowl and abbey lane. All of them on the middle of the 3 pitches. Visibility is not the best. Only got a good pic of one on abbey lane. The others are all similar in size.

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2019
Name:
Subject: Backyard avalanche
Aspect: North East

Elevation: 9500
Avalanches:

Small avalanche on hillside between Long Lake and Stream View Lane. Storm slab stepped down to persistent weak layer. Bed surface at ground level in multiple locations. 500 yards south of Washington Gulch parking area. Visible from the road.

Weather: Snowing heavily. Winds downslope, down valley

Photos:

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2019
Name: billy barr
Subject: Gothic 7am Update
Aspect:
Weather: Cloudy with steady, strong wind Saturday and stronger gusts, up to about 40 mph. Generally light to no snow, mostly in the afternoon so a dense build-up. Then wind lets up with light to moderate snow ending by midnight. So 24 hour totals are 6½” new snow with 0.54″ of SWE. Currently 31″ on the ground, winters deepest and above average for this date (first time all winter). It is cloudy but calm (hooray). Low temp. 4ºF and currently 6 after a high of 27F. Did I mention no wind? billy

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2019
Name: Steve Banks
Subject: Gothic Obs
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 9,500

Avalanches: None observed—poor visibility

Weather: 6-8” of new snow accumulation. Periods of S4 snowfall. Whiteout most of the day. Strong down valley (NW) winds which curiously shifted to up valley from time to time. Temps in the mid to upper 20’s. Around dusk the winds and snowfall tapered significantly.

Snowpack: Shooting cracks and collapse on small 36* East facing slope. Shovel tilt test failed repeatedly within the new snow while isolating or removing the column. Compression Test also failed on isolation (CTV) failing are the ground. Strong over weak structure observed, though in the location Basel facets were minimal and discontinuous. Most notable in our snow pit was the upside down new snow and storm slab failures.

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2019
Subject: Sensitive Snodgrass
Aspect: East, South East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: Poor visibility prevented views of surrounding landscapes.

Weather: Variable weather. Overcast skies with periods of S-1, S1, and S2 snowfall, but mostly S-1. This snowfall really didn’t result in snow accumulation. Did notice graupel grains on the snow surface. Primary weather factor for snow accumulation were the winds, which were moderate at times with moderate snow transport, especially in unprotected areas. Temperatures were closer to freezing in the trees and in sheltered areas.

Snowpack: Shallow snowpack in the spruce with air pockets around branches and down trees. Collapsing and cracking on new skin track in the spruce, but isolated to the skin track.

Four hasty hand pits from the aspen through the spruce all had failures on a layer 6 inches below the snow surface. In wind affected areas, hand CT resulted in CT1 Q1. Other tests were CT2 and CTV Q2 but all on the layer about 6 inches below the snow surface. Failure layer is buried surface hoar?

 

Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2019
Name: Cosmo

Subject: Cement Creek Snow

Weather: Cement Creek @ 9400’, 8am Saturday—6.5” of snow over last 24ish hours bringing storm total thus far to to about 12”. Snow this morning seemed denser than the snow I shoveled yesterday morning. Plenty of wind blowing fresh snow around.

 

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/14/2019
Name: billy barr

Subject: Gothic Townsite 6am Obs

 

Elevation: 9400
Weather: Snow stopped near sunrise yesterday and it stayed dry, though very windy, the rest of the day. Wind let up near sunset and snow started just at dark and continued through the night. Wind was mild until becoming strong near 4 a.m. as snowfall continued. Totals so far are 7″ new snow with 0.56″ SWE and snowpack at 27½”. Currently light snow and strong wind, about 8-15 W gusting to 30. Temperature dropped to 18F but gradually climbed to the current 26F. It is not nice out there. billy

 

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/13/2019
Name: Steve Banks

Subject: Gothic Valley

Aspect: North East

Elevation: 9,500’
Avalanches:

No avalanches observed.

Weather: Left the Snodgrass TH a little after 2 pm in a nice lull in the storm. Got a little sun, broken skies and light winds. Could see moderate to intense wind loading at ridge top on White Mtn. Temps started off relatively mild in the mid 20’s and dropped significantly through the afternoon. Ceiling dropped and light snow beginning again by 5 pm.

Snowpack: Average 7” of new snow BTL with some wind effect. Average HS 40cms. Still lots of grass and bushes showing on southerly slopes. Stomping on steep road cuts produced some cracking, though less than expected. Cracks went full depth to basal facets.