Gothic Mtn

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/17/2015
NAME: Zach Guy
SUBJECT: Gothic Mtn
ASPECT: South, South West
ELEVATION: 9,500-12,200 ft

AVALANCHES: One natural soft slab involving the recent storm snow on an East aspect ATL on Schuykill Peak that failed sometime in the past 5 days, SS-N-R2-D1.5-I Looked to be about a foot deep and 100-200 feet wide. Not much else for recent activity except some smaller sluffs and a small windslab on crossloaded SW above treeline.

WEATHER: Light west winds, clear skies, mild temps. Some plumes observed off of Ruby Range.

SNOWPACK: No new snow. In flat terrain, snowpack was supportive about 70% of the time, and trapdoor the rest. One collapse noted. As slopes steepened, there was little concern for persistent slab. Mostly meltforms throughout the snowpack and some moist facets below the several supportive crusts near the surface. Shallow snow depths between 20 and 60 cm. No signs of instability on slopes up to 40 degrees. The crust sandwhich at the surface (Very thick Jan 11 crust/1-3″ of soft snow/ thin surface crust) could be a big concern with future storms as that soft layer below today’s thin surface crust facets out.