Snodgrass obs

CB Avalanche Center2016-17 Observations

Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/15/2016
Name: Zach Guy
Subject: Snodgrass obs
Aspect: North, North East, South East
Elevation: 9,400-11,100 ft

Avalanches: 5 harmless wet loose avalanches ran naturally on a SW aspect BTL. I could see a fresh D1.5 debris pile on a S aspect NTL, looked like it might have been a slab release but too far to see clearly.
Weather: Broken skies. Warm, greenhousing.
Snowpack: No signs of instability across various rollovers and steep roadcuts BTL. Mid-pack facet layers produced non-propagating results. The structure on southeast aspects appeared to be the most fragile for incoming loads. Northeast aspects could handle a larger load but will produce larger slides. See photos and captions

NE aspect BTL.  ECTN 21, PC on 1.5 mm F facets.  F to 4F+ slab.
N aspect NTL.  ECTN 22, BRK.  45 cm down, on F+ 0.5 mm rounding near surface facets.  F to 1F slab.
SSE aspect BTL.  ECTN3, BRK.  45 cm down, below a thin meltfreeze crust on F facets.  F to 4F slab.