Observations

Date of Observation: 03/24/2021
Name: Jack Caprio
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Lower Slate
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9k-11k

Avalanches: Intentionally ski triggered a small persistent slab avalanche on a wind-loaded feature just off a road cut. The avalanche broke in two places: On the most recent interface about 10-15 cms down from the surface, and on the 3/10 interface which was buried about 40 cms.

Weather: Overcast and warm.

Snowpack: I stayed below treeline all day near the border of the NW and SE zones. In the protected areas where no wind loading has occurred the snowpack is very weak top to bottom. Generally, no slab avalanche concerns on protected northerly slopes due to lack of a slab in this area. As I stepped out into open skied, wind-affected areas slabs became more common. Slabs were generally soft but did reach 1F hardness just above the 3/10 interface on the slide I triggered. The 3/10 interface consists of 1-1.5 mm facets on due north slopes in this area.

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Date of Observation: 03/23/2021
Name: Alex Tiberio

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location:
Aspect:
Elevation: 9500

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Date of Observation: 03/22/2021
Name: Ian Havlick

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Scarp ridge/Indy Basin/Elk Basin/Mount Emmons
Aspect: North, North East, East, South East, South, South West, West
Elevation: 9000-12,400

Avalanches: No avalanches observed except for an older crown line in NW facing ATL Peeler Basin off Scarp Ridge
Weather: Mostly clear skies gave way to mostly cloudy and poor visibility due to convective S1-S2 snow showers. heavily rimed snowfall, 1/2″ accumulation during these showers.
Snowpack: Snowpack was mostly quiet, mix of 2-6″ new snow over the last 48hrs resting on mix of crusts, windbuff and small grained facets. Some minimal windloading on south facing ridgelines from early morning northerly winds. No signs of instability across variety of aspects. No significant windslab development.

Date of Observation: 03/21/2021
Name: Andrew Breibart

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Coneys
Aspect: North East, East
Elevation: BTL

Avalanches: NA-poor visbility.
Weather: Mostly calm winds on the tour with light winds on the ridge line. Skies were obscured and snowfall rate was S1/S2.
On the skin out skies were obstructed with scattered S-1 snowfall. Winds picked up and were light with moderate gusts in the valley bottom.
Snowpack: Less than 3 inches of new snow in the skin track in the morning. On the leeward side of Convex Corner, snow depth was 5 inches. In the valley bottom, snow was not supportive on upper melt freeze crust. Snow in First Bowl was supportive. Triggered a shallow slough in the new snow that traveled on top of the upper melt freeze crust at the entrance to the bowl. The slough had little energy and may have traveled 25 feet.
The skin track on the exit had a trace of new snow.

Date of Observation: 03/20/2021
Name: Zach Guy

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: North bowl of Cement
Aspect: North
Elevation: 12,000

Avalanches: Large natural persistent slab avalanche ran sometime after Friday at 2 pm. First observed on Saturday from a distance on Star Pass. This path ran back in February. Given the aspect and elevation, this was likely a dry slab that was triggered by surface warming.
 

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Date of Observation: 03/20/2021
Name: Cam Smith

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location:
Aspect: South, West
Elevation:

Avalanches: 1x Wet slab on a W facing BTL slope that seemed to gouge to the ground and ran a surprising distance down a gulley. Maybe 100 ft. wide and ran ~1,000 ft. I like to think it was animal triggered based on the tracks going in then tracks coming out in a lower spot. But that might just be me believing what I want to believe for the sake of drama. (CBAC Note: Comparing some old observations this looks like the crown of an old avalanche reported in February that has a more melted out and wet appearance now. Guess it needs to snow more…)

Weather: Wasn’t the scorcher we expected in the morning

Snowpack: Crusts weren’t quite frozen solid on some lower angle slopes and places with any hint of shade. Loose wet activity on S and W faces of Gothic above treeline. If you dig skiing bulletproof crusts let me know I have all kinds of secrets for finding the least pleasant conditions.

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Date of Observation: 03/19/2021
Name: billy barr

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Gothic

Weather: Not much up but today was the warmest so far this year st 48F and the first day the snow really started to melt on flat ground. Attached is a shot of wet, loose slides between Mt Bellview and the beginning of Rustler’s Gulch. And today is the first day the Robins are here.

Date of Observation: 03/19/2021
Name: Evan Ross

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Carbon
Aspect: North, North East
Elevation: 9,000-12,000ft

Avalanches: More small loose wet avalanches were noted. All small in size. Still lots of terrain that hasn’t shed, if it is going to shed…

Observed 2 other new and notable slab avalanches. They both released since the last round of snow and look reasonably sharp or fresh. These were both viewed from far away so more specific details would just make for a poor estimate. Both failed on NE facing slopes between 11,700ft and 12,000ft. The avalanche on Ohio Peak looked more like a D1.5 while the avalanche out int he West Elks was a D2.

Weather: Some high clouds moved in for part of the mid day, otherwise mostly clear sky. Light winds at ridgeline. HOT. Elkton 11,100ft 49 degrees, CBMR 11,300 39 degrees.

Snowpack: Headed over to some north-facing terrain on Carbon that had previously avalanched back on February 6th. At 10,500ft the average HS was 155cm’s in undisturbed areas. I chose to target a small section of slope in the area where you could still see one of the old crowns running through the slope. North at 10,900ft. Here the HS dropped to right around 100cm. About 40cm’s down there was an obvious interface of fist hard weak facets. On top of those facets was a F to 1F slab. The most recent storm made up the upper 20cm of that slab. As I continued to dig the slope collapsed on those facets and I got the privilege of watching that collapse run through the pit. Stability text complete. Packed up and didn’t overstay my welcome any longer.

The 3/10 interface was under about 20cm of snow at this location. Currently, there didn’t appear to be a notable issue at that interface. So the layer of concern would be on slopes that previously avalanched and have now refilled with enough snow to form a new slab. The warm temps are of course further settling the upper snowpack and low angled northerly facing slopes had a moist snow surface.

Date of Observation: 03/19/2021

Name: Jack Caprio

Zone: Crested Butte Backcountry

The doughnut hole effect showed up in full force this week. Irwin received 20+ inches and areas closer to town only 4 inches. Click here to see how this storm impacted avalanche conditions throughout the zone.

Date of Observation: 03/17/2021
Name: Morgan Boyles

Zone: Southeast Mountains
Location: Above Friends Hut
Aspect: South West
Elevation: 12,000′

Avalanches: Triggered a SS-ASu-R3-D1.5 on 3/17/21 on a small SW slope at 12k above the Friends Hut. Crown was 4″-8″ and the slide propagated the whole 200′ width of the feature. This ran on the crust buried on 3/10. Several other naturals from the last two to three days observed running below rocks on S, W, and E aspects mostly D1 in size. The largest was almost D2 in size and on a steep W facing slope of Star Peak on the Aspen side of Pearl Pass. Some other small loose wet observed.

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