Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Turner Petersen
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: –
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Second hangfire wet slab east face Gibson ridge BTL
Weather: Nuclear
Snowpack: Red
Photos:
6223
Date of Observation: 04/11/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Morning tour into Peeler Basin, traveling mostly on northerly aspects to 12,000’
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A few wet slabs on S to SE aspects NTL that ran yesterday, D1.5 to D3. Several large gouging wet loose BTL on SE and E. Plenty of shallow wet loose at all elevations (D1 to D1.5), spanning around to NE aspects at higher elevations and N BTL. More photos later tonight.
Weather: Clear, light winds. Waaaarm.
Snowpack: Marginal refreeze: punchy boot pen and supportive ski pen at 9 am. Felt like the window for good corn on SE was about 9:30 NTL. Still dry powder on high due north; Northeast ATL started rollerballing this morning. Bigger pinwheels as we descended to north BTL, and we triggered a few shallow wet loose involving just the white snow above the dust layer. North quadrant appears to be ways off from water draining into the snowpack for wet slab issues.
Photos:
6222
Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Pavement observations
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful more large Wet Loose and Wet Slab avalanches failed in the Red Ridge area. Wet Slabs seem to be the biggest issue on easterly and westerly aspects with more southerly slopes generally being a loose problem.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
6221
Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Hwy 135 obs
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several loose avalanches from easterly aspects yesterday viewed early this morning. A handful more gouging wet loose on easterly terrain and loose/slab hybrid avalanches up to D2.5.
Photos:
6219
Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West and Middle Brush Creeks.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Documenting yesterday’s avalanches from West Brush. See other ob for today’s wet avy’s.
Photos:
6218
Date of Observation: 04/10/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: West Brush Creek drainage and Teocalli Mtn to 13,200. Traveled on various aspects, back to the TH by 2 before the peak of meltwater drainage.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: See photos and details below. Yesterday’s slides are documented in separate ob.
BTL: Several large gouging wet loose, wet slabs and glide avalanches ran yesterday. Activity was escalating today, we observed three wet slabs run between 1 p.m and 2 p.m on east aspects (D2-D2.5) and a full-depth wet loose on a south aspect (D2). The wet slabs failed just above the ground and one snapped fairly mature trees.
NTL: A few shallow wet loose (D1-1.5) ran yesterday, along with several large wet slabs (D2) on south to west aspects, in shallow, rocky terrain. Saw one wet slab run today on an east aspect (D1.5) and some more small wet loose activity. Left before the south to west aspects were at peak instability.
ATL: A few fresh cornice falls (D2) and a few shallow wet loose avalanches (D1-1.5). Notably quieter than mid and low elevations for wet activity.
Also a notable D3+ came off of the south face of Teo about a week ago (I’m guessing April 1). It started as a broad storm slab ATL and stepped down into old hard slabs in the gullies before reaching valley bottom.
Weather: Clear, calm winds, sweating profusely by mid day.
Snowpack: Surfaces were frozen and supportive to boot, ski, and sled this morning for a few hours. By about 12:30, east aspects BTL were unsupportive in steep, rocky areas (boot pen thigh+ deep), and small test slopes were easy to initiate gouging wet loose. Wet slab activity began shortly after that here. High northerly aspects remained dry, but were just starting to get damp and rollerball on NE aspects around 12,000′. On planar sunbaked slopes ATL (not near rocks), water had moved into the top 5″ or so. Sledding out became on and off trapdoor this afternoon. The dust is now widespread on the surface at all elevations in the SE mtns, except for high north.
Photos:
6217
Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Hunter Hill
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Cornice fall on Hunter Hill
Photos:
6216
Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Obs from town.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Several large natural avalanches running out of the westerly side (Terminator Chutes) of Mount Crested Butte. These ran around 6 or 7pm.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
6215
Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Grant Robbins
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Skinning back to Snodgrass TH around 6:45pm noticed a few wet loose slides on south aspect of Res Ridge
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches:
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
6214
Date of Observation: 04/09/2023
Name: Eric Murrow
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Kebler Pass corridor to Evan Basin on Emmons and up to Scarp Ridge.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A recent glide avalanche on an easterly aspect of Whetstone BTL on shale slopes, a handful of small wet loose avalanches near treeline, and fresh cornice fall on Emmons along skin track ridge near treeline.
Weather: Some cloud cover in the morning gave way to mostly clear skies by noon and the afternoon. Warm temperatures below treeline, near freezing temps above treeline, and light west-northwest winds at ridgetops.
Snowpack: I traveled around in the afternoon to catch peak warming on easterly and southerly slopes. Below treeline surface crusts lost strength just after noon and I found up to a foot of wet cohesionless snow below. The snowpack strength ramps up not much below the wet snow which leaves a foot or more of wet snow on low elevation sunny slopes for loose snow avalanches to entrainment. Near treeline on an easterly slope , wet snow was limited to the top few inches making for easy, small loose avalanches. Meltwater had drained down to and was oozing through the first crust encounter beneath the dusty crust near the surface. An above treeline a southeast slope was only moist/barely wet in the top few inches. I was able to produce roller balls here, but do not think it was a Wet Loose avalanche problem yet; light winds and modest temps kept alpine sunny slopes in this area from becoming a problem.
There was a dramatic difference between water production on terrain with dirt at or very near the surface versus slopes with 6 inches or more of white snow.
Photos:
6213
