Small skier-triggered slide at Snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center2014-15 Observations

Name: Andrew schauer
Title: Small skier-triggered slide at Snodgrass
Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 01/01/2015
Aspect: Northeast
Elevation: Not sure, about 2/3 of the way to the top

Avalanches: Small skier-triggered soft slab avalanche on NW aspect about a foot deep and +/- 25 ft wide. Ran about 500 ft. Slope failed on facets under previous storm’s snow. Minor signs of wind, but slab was 4 finger hardness, not super dense. Start zone was a convexity, about 35 degree slope. Nobody caught or buried.

Weather: Intermittent snow

Snowpack: From a pit lower down on a slightly more westerly aspect:
Depth about 75cm
No real signs of wind slabs, a few different layers with facets, especially deep in the snowpack.
ECTN15 about 10cm depth in new snow layer
ECTN28 about 30cm depth in thick facet layer
Both failures were Q3
CTN at same location
All failures were poor shear quality and showed no signs of “popping”, snowpack did not seem very reactive.

I did notice two old crowns in the area that were starting to get buried again. Probably from the last week.

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