Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/05/2019
Name: Alex Tiberio
Subject: Gothic Obs
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10000
Weather: Snowy and windy in AM clearing up in PM
Snowpack: 10” of new snow from storm. Fairly large collapses in open meadows on slopes less than 30 degrees
Photos:
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/05/2019
Name: Derel Zazzi
Subject: Rider Trigger Avalanche
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,000
Avalanches: north east aspect rider trigger avalanche. first rider triggers avalanche and gets flushed for full pitch. ends up in debris pile. 2nd rider digs first rider out, partially buried.
Weather: Snowing Heavily thru the duration of the ski day.
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/05/2019
Name: billy bar
Subject: Gothic 7am Weather Update
Weather: Snow started near midnight and was steady most of the night, pausing near sunrise. There was 6″ new and 0.42″ and snow pack is at winter’s deepest of 15″. Currently it is overcast but just stopped snowing. No wind through the night. Yesterday’s high was 42F and it dipped to 14F after dark but is currently at 25F. A nice snow.
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/04/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Shooting Cracks, Poverty Gulch
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,500-10,500
Weather: Mostly cloudy sky in the morning cleared out to few clouds through the day. The cloud bank still didn’t make it overhead at sunset. Calm wind down in the valleys and nice warm temps.
Snowpack: The slabs that formed in late November are holding up well. Ski Pen was around 10-15cm, with Boot Pen punching through to the old October snow on the ground. That old snow is just as weak as it ever was, 2-3mm faceted and striated grains. So, classic Persistent Slab Avalanche Problem. HS was in the 40-60cm range, but the slabs held the skis up just fine and made the skiing great if you could dodge all the shrubs and ground clutter.
Plenty of collapses with shooting cracks were felt. Didn’t take slope angles over 33 degrees and made sure to give overhead slopes plenty of room with the threat of remote triggering them. The shooting cracks were failing at the interface of the October snow. There were a couple other weak interfaces in this shallow snowpack, with layers of SH and small NSF. Whole bunch of junk, but at least the slabs were keeping you off the ground.
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/04/2019
Name: Zach Kinler
Subject: Elkton Study Plot
Aspect: North East, East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 10,400
Avalanches: No new avalanches observed.
Weather: FEW, Light West winds, Tair @12:40 was +1.0C. Strong solar, very comfortable day!
Snowpack: HS only increased by 3 cm since last Wednesday despite ~25 cm accumulation during the week. This settlement has created a 1F- hard slab sitting on top of the 11/25 Interface which is 2 mm facets capped with a 1 cm faceting crust. This structure, with the stiffer slab, was able to produce easy CT results (CT5 SC Q1) and propagating ECT results (ECTP10).
Moderate CT results (CT 20 RP Q2) and non-propagating ECT results (ECTN12) were observed at the 11/29 interface which consists of 1.5 mm near surface facets.
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/01/2019
Subject: Good Coverage at Rainbow Lake
Aspect: South
Elevation: 10,698
Snowpack: above 10,200 the snow starts to stack up… in the sheltered trees BTL the snow and skiing is pretty good. ATL more wind effected as you’d expect.
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/03/2019
Name: Sam Roberts
Subject: Red Lady Glades
Aspect: East, South East, South
Elevation: 9,000′-11284′
Avalanches: None
Weather: The day started as mostly overcast with a few flakes flying and a slight wind coming in from the west. As we skinned the clouds began to break and the wind remained with the occasional gust up to about 10mph. The decrease of cloud coverage saw an increase in sunlight and the temperature rose quickly from around -5 degrees C to about +1 degrees C by noon.
Snowpack: VERY THIN. Overall the glades are a 100% no-go and I would not recommend them to any friends or family just yet. We went up anyway. The skin track is the usual track but with many more logs and bushes in the way. We skinned until we reached the rim of red lady bowl the went west into the glades for a pit. The pit was just as we expected from the skin up, shallow. Snow totals ranged from 25-45 cm total in a E-SE-S facing gully at 11284′. There were 2 distinct layer, the first being the last storm snow that consisted of rounded grains of fist hardness (with the basal 2-3cm developing into facets) ranging from 20-40cm below a 2-4cm thick sun crust. Above the sun crust was 3-5cm of fresh snow that had been blown in by the wind. No test were conducted, the only reactivity I saw was the 2cm sun crust cracking and sliding on top of the storm snow. This quickly degrading new snow under that sun crust could cause problems whenever this area gets more snow.
Location: Cement Creek Area
Date of Observation: 12/03/2019
Name: Zach Kinler & Eric Murrow
Subject: The Creek Called Cement
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9000′ – 11650′
Avalanches:
Snow volumes are greatly reduced in the Cement Creek area even at its head. Only avalanches observed were on Hunter Hill’s leeward side, NE and ENE slopes, above treeline – very drifty.
3xSS-D1-R1-O ATL, NE
1xSS-D1.5-R1-O ATL ENE
1xSS-D1-R1-O ATL E
Weather: The morning began mostly cloudy with mild temperatures. By the afternoon skies were mostly sunny. Winds were very light near treeline from the WNW. A skiff of new snow overnight.
Snowpack: HS ranged from 20 to 50cm throughout the length of Cement Creek. Around 11000′ there was a noticeable uptick in volume. S and SE aspects developed a 2.5cm MFcr up through the highest elevations we traveled, 11650′; the crust was quite soft.
Dug a profile in a northeast-facing drifted feature at 11,500′ and found 74cm or so of snow. Slab development since November 20th was 44cm and up to 4finger hardness. We observed a couple of smaller collapses, up to 30 feet distance. Boot penetration was to ground. Old snow at the ground was 2 to 3mm DH capped by a friable crust. See profile
Easterly facing slopes near treeline had patchy old snow near the ground not creating continuous coverage on a slope scale. We observed a couple of collapses but very localized.
Snow coverage is becoming much more continuous in the shallow Cement Creek drainage. see photos
Very little to no avalanche hazard on sheltered slopes near and below treeline on all aspects as volumes are lean and slabs are thin and very soft. Drifted locations near and above treeline are the terrain locations that hold avalanche concerns; north through east-facing slopes are the bullseye. Strong winds from last weekend appeared to have formed very small, stiff slabs on cross-loaded features on a variety of aspects at upper elevations.
Photos:
Location: Paradise Divide Area
Date of Observation: 12/01/2019
Name: Evan Ross
Subject: Poverty Gulch
Aspect: South East, South
Elevation: 9,900-11,900
Avalanches: Carnage all over the place from the 11/30 natural avalanche cycle. The total tally of observed avalanches from Eric and I is in his observation here. The only additional notable avalanche was the large natural on the South side of Mineral Point. This avalanche initiated in the upper cliffs as a windslab. when that cascaded into the apron below it further propagated in the South facing bowl. I believe the apron propagated on the 11/25th interface, with around a 50cm crown. This is estimated as I didn’t do a crown investigation.
Weather: Beautiful mostly clear day with a few high clouds. Light winds will a small amount of snow continuing to drift.
Snowpack: A couple collapses where old October snow was lingering as a collapsible crust near the ground. This collapsible crust was isolated in the terrain we traveled. Otherwise managed the terrain with the old wind slabs in mine. The 11/29 and 11/25 interfaces didn’t appear that they will pose a persistent issue, but managing the terrain with the old wind-loading in mind was still great travel advice as these interfaces continue to adjust to the new load.
Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 12/01/2019
Name: Eric Murrow
Subject: 1st major avalanche cycle of the season
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West, North West
Elevation: 9000′ – 11,650′
Avalanches:
Hot dang, there sure was a natural cycle in the terrain to the northwest of Crested Butte around Saturday 11/30. Heres what was visible from travel through slate river corridor and poverty gulch. Some failed early in storm and refilled while others fail late with sharp crowns.
Climax: 4x-SS-D2.5 NTL NE
Peeler: 1x-SS-D2 NTL E
Redwell: 1x-SS-D2 ATL NE
Schuylkill Ridge:
1xSS-D2-R3-O NTL NE
1xSS-D2-R3-O BTL NE
Schuylkill Peak:
1x-SS-D2.5 NTL NE
1x-SS-D2.5 NTL N (Baxter Basin)
Schuylkill SubPeak:
1xSS-D2 NTL ENE
1xSS-D2.5 NTL N
3xSS-D1.5 NTL NW
Daisy Pass:
1xSS-D2 NTL E
2xSS-D1.5 NTL NE
Mineral Point: SS-D2.5-R2-I ATL S
Angle Pass:
SS-D2.5-R2-O ATL NE
2xSS-D2 ATL NE
1xSS-D1.5 NE
Afley: 1xSS-D2.5 ATL NE
Weather: Cool day with light winds and decent solar. Overall a comfortable day. No transport observed during the day.
Snowpack: Traveled on mainly south and southeast aspects in the poverty gulch area. HS on these aspects was roughly around 50 to 60cm (much of the terrain we moved through was open and susceptible to wind transport so HS across terrain was variable). Much of this terrain was dry prior to Nov 20th storm with only drifted features holding on to old crust or very isolated facet/crust set up. We did experience a couple of collapses but on isolated wind whales. Interfaces from Nov 25th and Nov 29th storm did not appear concerning or produce results in hasty hand tests, no cracking observed. Snowpack on these sunny slopes was surprisingly supportive to skis.
Photos:
