Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/02/2018
Name: Ben Pritchett and Eric Murrow
Subject: Slab no more
Aspect: North, North East, East
Elevation: 9,400-11,100′
Avalanches:
Went to check out the three size 2 avalanches that ran in Snodgrass 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bowls during the Christmas cycle.
Weather: cool, clear, nothing to note other than good faceting conditions
Snowpack: Trap doors opening, slabs faceting, couldn’t get anything to budge or crack despite dozens of steep slopes tested.
Photos:
1st bowl debris
1st bowl debris
quick look at layering adjacent to 2nd bowl flank – no slab remains
Looking down 2nd bowl rider’s left flank
2nd bowl debris
no cracking or collapsing while testing adjacent slopes to last week’s natural avalanches
looking up 2nd bowl path. Debris surface had faceted to 4F- to F+ stiffness.