Roadside avalanche obs with poor vis

CBAC2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Eric Murrow

 

Zone: Southeast Mountains & Northwest Mountains

Avalanches: Visibility was tantalizingly poor all day. Just enough vis for a few seconds to spot some natural avalanche activity. Observed a number of dry loose avalanches above treeline on Gothic and Scarp Ridge. Two small Wind Slabs spotted on WSC Peak and Whetstone.  I never left the pavement.

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Small Skier triggered slide in the Anthracites

CB Avalanche Center2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Small steep slope above seven bowl & skin track
Aspect: North East
Elevation: 10,550

Avalanches: A member of our group triggered a small slide (D1) in a steep area above seven bowl that has not seen much traffic. The slope was a NE aspect, the crown seemed to fracture on the 12/10 interface.
Human factors:
Our group got a bit spread out looking for fresh turns, a couple members that did not know the area well ended up in a steep area above seven bowl and triggered a small slide that ran into trees.
Weather: Temp: mid 20’s
Sky: partly cloudy
wind: light
Precipitation: periods of light snow
Snowpack: Did not see any signs of instability throughout our tour.

 

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Snow and blow

CBAC2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Kebler Pass
Aspect: North, South East
Elevation: 10,000 – 11,500′

Avalanches: Limited visibility obscured views of most near and above treeline terrain.
-A few small natural wind slabs on east and southeast aspects near and below treeline that ran last night or today. These all looked to be about 6″ to 8″ thick
-A small persistent slab that looks like it was unintentionally skier triggered from below the slope, about 18″ thick on a southeast aspect below treeline
Weather: Overcast. Light to moderate NW winds where we traveled, drifting visible in exposed terrain. A few pulses of moderate snowfall (S2), but generally light snowfall or lulls through the day, with 1″ to 2″ of accumulation.
Snowpack: About 6″ of new snow that felt topheavy from the increased wind speeds late in the storm. Easy to produce cracking in wind affected snow. Plenty of evidence of drifting overnight, even on exposed below treeline slopes.
We traveled mostly below treeline on existing skin tracks and areas that have seen a fair amount of traffic this week. Stepping away from tracks, I got a few small collapses and one large collapse on north and southeast aspects. Pits at these locations showed easy to moderate propagating results, 1 to 2 feet down on the 1/19 facet layer. See photos. We ski cut a few steep slopes with no results.

 

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Anthracite Mesa-Coneys

CB Avalanche Center2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart

 

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys
Aspect: North East, East, South East
Elevation: BTL

 

Avalanches: Observed three wet loose slides on the west facing gullies of Gothic. Not much snow was entrained and starting zones were partially exposed cliff bands. I assume these ran between Thursday or Friday (1/28/21-1/29/21).
Weather: Paradise Divide and mountains in the NW zone west of the Anthracites were under obscured skies. In area of observations, mostly cloudy skies with periodic afternoon S-1 and S1 snow. lLight winds in the valley bottom with no snow transport and moderate winds at the ridge lines. Snow and wind didn’t result in additional loading of the bowls. Exception is summit ridge line had minimal snow loading just below ridge.
Snowpack: Traveled off skin track in open areas as much as one can in this area. No cracking or collapsing off the skin tracks. Hand and ski pole probing of the skin track cuts revealed a 1F sun crust on the SE aspect (1/19 interface?). It was about one inch thick about 6 to 8 inches below the surface Ski pen off skin track ranged between 6 and 12 inches. Stomped a wind lip on the ridgeline and stomped around the summit rollover. Nothing cracked, collapsed, or moved. Trace of new snow today from S1 snowfall.

 

AMR

CB Avalanche Center2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Sasha Legere

Zone: Northwest Mountains
Location: Anthracites

Avalanches: See photo

 

 

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Walrod

CB Avalanche Center2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: Daniel K

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Walrod gulch
Aspect: East
Elevation: 9400

Avalanches: Noticed a small skier triggered slide in the path just past the walrod connector that looks like it went yesterday. Couldnt really distinguish a crown with the ski tracks and low vis and could’ve been a point release entraining snow in the gully. Not enough snow to go all the way to the road.

 

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Gothic 7 a.m.

CBAC2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/30/2021
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic

Weather: Cloudy with steady and light, but dense, snow much of the night with 2″ new and water 0.20″- a small crystal compact snow. Snowpack sits at 34″. Currently it is cloudy but not snowing and staying generally mild with the low and current temperature at 18ºF after a high yesterday of 37F (and 39 the day before). Wind is light with occasional gusting from the west. Little by little the snowpack goes….nowhere. billy

 

Anthracite Mesa

CB Avalanche Center2020-21 Observations

Date of Observation: 01/29/2021
Name: Ben Pritchett

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Long Lake area
Aspect: North, North East, North West
Elevation: 9500-10000

Avalanches: No new slab avalanches seen. Dry loose sluffing in steep northerly facing terrain that has grown completely faceted.
Weather: Ridgeline Wind Speed: 20-30 mph
Ridgeline Wind Direction: SW
Wind Loading: Light
Temperature: 35 F
Depth of New Snow: 1 cm
Depth of Total Snow: 85 cm
Weather Description: Cloudy, warm. Pre-frontal winds picked up and began to transport snow early afternoon.
Snowpack: Went hunting for weak snow. Dug numerous holes in this transitional zone on the periphery of the deep snow belt. This area is often representative of weaker parts of the zone, but not as shallow as Spring Creek or Taylor. Height of snow varied from 40-120cm. No collapsing or cracking observed today while traveling in areas of weak snow. Add another 20-30 cm of slab (in the deeper snowpack areas or at higher elevations) and I would expect isolated / stubborn collapsing and the potential for human-triggered avalanches if you find just the right spot. South and west facing slopes have durable, supportive crusts below the most recent storm snow. No current avalanche problem, and not likely to become dangerous with this incoming storm. Northwest and North are thin, and thoroughly faceted. Very little slab structure. Easy to push loose dry avalanches that gouged to near the ground. Sluffing in the deeper parts of the zone can be expected with more than 6-8″ of new snow. Northeast and east have the thickest slabs. Southeast is the touchiest with the stiffest layers (thin crusts) above recently buried and basal facet layers. Northeast through east to southeast remain the bullseye for Persistent Slab avalanches. With Saturday’s loading these slopes will remain the areas of greatest concern.

 

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