Kebler Pass/Irwin

CB Avalanche Center2019-20 Observations

Location: Kebler Pass Area
Date of Observation: 02/13/2020
Name: Ian Havlick
Subject: Kebler Pass/Irwin
Aspect: East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 10-12,000ft

Avalanches:

multiple D1 windslabs in UWW terrain. Otherwise, no explosive testing in any terrain
due to low visibility. Observed D2 windslabs in east-facing alpine terrain on Ruby late in day.

Weather: Full storm conditions with S2 snowfall this morning and 20-30mph winds, cold, single-digit temperatures all day. Overcast skies trended to partly cloudy skies after 1500. No significant solar impacts today. 5″ storm total, .45″ SWE

Snowpack: Many minor windslabs ski cut in primarily west facing cross-loaded terrain with largest slabs in west facing, near treeline. Ventured into west-facing alpine, but was largely getting stripped by westerly winds straight up and over the terrain. East and south facing terrain really were not accumulating many reactive windslabs, as we monitored throughout the day. Found very weak crust facet combination on south-facing near treeline behaving very oddly producing widespread collapsing and shooting cracks in terrain we have not trafficked this year. One collapse remotely triggered a very small storm/windslab pocket uphill from us.

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