Date of Observation: 05/28/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass roadside obs
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: 4 large wet slabs on high northerly aspects that likely ran during last week’s warmup
Photos:
5566
Date of Observation: 05/26/2022
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Traveled on N and NE aspects of Gothic Mtn, to 11,900′
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A couple of large wet slabs on the north side of Gothic ran during last week’s heat wave, along with what looks like a large wet avalanche near Daisy Pass. Also a few wet loose up to D1.5 in Copper Creek.
Traveled over fairly extensive tree damage on a previously undocumented slide presumably from the holiday cycle.
Weather: Sunny, light breeze.
Snowpack: Drainage through the snowpack is well established here, even on northerly aspects. Snow surfaces are old, dusty, and sun-textured, with very thin pockets of white snow from the past storm. Given how mature the surface is, it seems that wet loose concerns are isolated to very steep, rocky slopes. Traveled on a few suspect slopes that were past prime and couldn’t get anything to move, despite shin-deep ski and knee-deep boot pen near shallow rocky areas. Cornices still pose a threat above some slopes.
Photos:
5565
Date of Observation: 05/17/2022
Name: Ben Pritchett
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: near Crested Butte
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: May 16 and 17 a cycle of wet avalanches ran that are gouging deeper into the snowpack. These started as loose avalanches, some from cornice collapses, with some gouging out narrow slabs breaking near the ground. Four of them grew large in size.
Weather: several near-record warm days with non-freezing nights. May 14th was the last night with a good freeze above treeline. Notably, at the Butte snotel (10,150′) the last solid valley freeze was May 5th.
Snowpack: Snowpack mostly gone at lower elevations. The snowpack is remarkably dirty and only continuous at upper elevations. The high elevations of the Ruby Range and Paradise Divide area still hold much more snow than other areas.
Photos:
5564
Date of Observation: 04/24/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Ruby Range
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Natural slab avalanche on SE side of Richmond
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
5563
Date of Observation: 04/23/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Up standard route and eventually over to the PG
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Triggered R2 soft slab wind deposit at the very beginning of ski cut. Propagated father down the chute than expected. Crown was ~18″. Debris traveled about 3/4’s of the full path.
Weather: S1-S3 all day. Internment and moderate winds
Snowpack: 10-18″ of storm snow.
Photos:
5562
Date of Observation: 04/23/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains & Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Ski tour Mount Axtel in Second Bowl in the morning and pavement avalanche obs in the evening.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Easily skier-triggered several loose avalanches in the storm snow on Axtel in sheltered terrain. While driving around in the evening I observed evidence of numerous avalanches on Gothic Mountain’s east bowl (most looked to be loose avalanches but a couple below ridge top may have been Wind Slabs – poor vis). Two small Wind Slabs on drifted alpine terrain on Whetstone. Visibility never allowed for good avalanche observations in drifted terrain other than on Axtel, Whetstone, and Emmons.
Weather: Light snowfall and moderate winds on Axtel in the AM with 11″ storm snow at 11am. Periods of broken skies around Crested Butte throughout the day with clearing skies above town around sunset. The Ruby Range remained obscured all day.
Snowpack: While touring on Axtel, I found a storm density change in the middle of the storm snow that took moderate force to fail in Shovel Tilt Tests; no cracking in sheltered terrain just easily triggered loose avalanches up to D1.5. Bonding between the new snow and the old crust was good in the sheltered terrain I traveled through. I stomped on a few small drifts, up to 16 inches deep, near treeline on Axtel and was able to produce ski-length cracking.
Later in the day at 2pm, I poked into some north-facing slopes near town at 9,000′ and found 7 inches of storm snow that was moist and sticky throughout from the mild air temps at low elevations.
Photos:
5561
Date of Observation: 04/23/2022
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic Townsite
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Obscured with scattered snow at first then moderate to heavy after midnight with 11″ new and water content 0.86″ The snowpack sits at 48″ after dipping under 35″ late yesterday. Currently light snow with steady wind that carried overnight. Certainly decent surface snow for potential slide activity.
5560
Date of Observation: 04/15/2022
Name: Evan Ross
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass area. 9,500ft to 12,000ft. Various aspects.
Weather: Overcast in the morning, partly cloudy for a bit mid-day, before increasing again in the late afternoon. W or SE winds are still blowing snow at upper elevations.
Snowpack: At near and below treeline elevations the snow service got moist or wet on north to east aspects. Mostly just roller balls on northerly facing slopes and not sure at what elevation the snow surface stayed dry. East was the most reactive at these elevations with small loose wet avalanche activity. Didn’t travel above treeline, looking into the ruby range you could see some roller balls or small loose snow avalanches on steep southerly facing slopes with rock outcrops. Found wind slabs up to a foot thick, but couldn’t get any notable results. Many things are blown off or just not loaded. The wind slab problem felt isolated and stubborn at NTL elevations.
Photos:
5557
Date of Observation: 04/14/2022
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Standard uptrack to Birthday Bowl (9,000-11,400ft). Descended the northern-most ridge 200 feet and the cut into the main bowl on a ENE aspect.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Triggered a sluff on a steep rollover (around 11,000ft) that knocked me over and carried me 400ft down the slope. Only the new snow (20-25cm) slid on a very firm (and dirty) crust. D1 in size but entrained a decent amount of snow with the toe of the debris 100cm at the deepest; 40-50 feet wide at the widest point. Relatively slow moving, but it feels quite fast when you are in it. Bumped into a couple of small trees, but fortunately just some bruises on my right leg. Deployed my airbag (almost didn’t bring it) midway down and came to a rest on top of the debris. Feeling thankful to be (mostly) unharmed and processing the poor decisions that led up to the slide. After not seeing much movement in the uppermost turns (on more northerly aspect) let down my guard when entering the more easterly (and steeper) terrain. I could have anticipated the firmer bed surface and continued managing for sluff by skiing across the terrain. The more easterly snow, while still dry and soft, was a bit heavier than what we had initially encountered at the top of the ridge. Luckily it was just a good lesson learned and a pole and a ski lost today. I will carry the lesson with me and I will find the gear when the snow melts.
Weather: Overcast with light W/SW winds. Temps in the upper 20s to low 30s.
Snowpack:
Photos:
5556
Date of Observation: 04/14/2022
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Slate River corridor to Purple Ridge.
Observed avalanche activity: No
Avalanches: The light was extremely flat which made it difficult to read the terrain. I did not observe any slab avalanches but could see some dusty (brown), narrow bed surfaces on lee slopes at upper elevations. I suspect most of these were small loose avalanches from the previous day.
Weather: Overcast skies, no precip, and generally light winds with moderate gusts at ridge top. I observed some loading on to easterly aspects up high. Winds were a bit lighter than expected and fetchs on westerly slopes have become stiff and are running low on transportable snow.
Snowpack: I traveled through mostly open terrain at all elevations and found snow surfaces to be noticeably stiffer than the previous day. Numerous hasty hand pits below treeline produce not concerning behavior. The new snow is well bonded to crusts below however shovel tilt tests continue to produce a planar result near the bottom of the storm snow. It took more force today to get a result in shovel tilt tests. Digging in well drifted leeward feature I was not able to get any notable test results even though there is a clear strong over weak structure present (see image). The most drifted terrain had a stiff surface that was supportive to skis. I was not able to produce any shooting cracks or find signs of instability yet chose to avoid the skiing drifted slopes.
Photos:
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