Snodgrass TH

CBAC February 1, 20152014-15 Observations, Avi Blog

NAME: Evan Ross
DATE: 1/31/15
LOCATION: Snodgrass TH

ASPECT: NE
ELEVATION: 9,650

WEATHER: Mostly cloudy sky in the afternoon. Snowing S-1 with warm temps that made it feel like it was almost raining at times. Calm winds started to increase from the west after 4pm.

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Snowpack was upside down with the new snow being cohesive, heavy and moist sitting on weak facets below. A pit at the above aspect and elevation. HS 86cm, all fist hard. HST was 10cm deep and cohesive. Jan 11th Surface Hoar was down 25cm. Shovel tilt and CT test produced moderate results on the Jan 11th interface. ECTX as the snow structure was soft and weak. …

Cement Creek Area

CB Avalanche Center February 1, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Cement Creek Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/31/2015

NAME: ADB
ELEVATION: BTL/NTL

WEATHER: Snowfall-S1. There was 1.5 cm of new snowfall. Calm. Temperature felt as if it hovered around 0 degrees Centigrade.

SNOWPACK: Storm snow: 2.5 to 7.5 cm. At Reno Divide, observed 10 cm wind slabs. Did about 5 test ski cuts: BTL-localized cracking and collapsing between 10 and 25 cm. NTL- collapsing up to 10 cm. Sun crust at bottom of layers, where collapsing occurred. Snow was wet BTL…

8am Observation From Gothic

CBAC January 31, 20152014-15 Observations

A dense, wet snow but not much of it with 4″ new but a decent 0.32″ water. Snowpack up to 33½”- winter’s deepest is 35″ and average for this date 48½”). Currently obscured with light snow, still wet and dense as the overnight temp. was 27ºF, period. No movement at all. billy barr…

Red Coon

CB Avalanche Center January 31, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/30/2015
NAME: Irwin Guides (CBMG)

SUBJECT: Red Coon
ASPECT: North, East, South East, South
ELEVATION: 9000-11,00

WEATHER: Overcast skies, snowing S1 throughout day, air temp at 11,800′ at mid-day was -5C, light winds from the South. Overall warm and wet day

SNOWPACK: Coral reef with a few cm’s on top on skin up to top of Coon summit. Dug a full profile pit just below summit at 11,800′ on a SE aspect on a 30* slope. HS 152; HST 7cms as of 1200. (see attached pit profile graph for more info). Easy failure with sudden collapse fracture character found with test results at 14cm’s down beneath a stout double crust/facet combo. More concerning was finding repeatable hard failure results with sudden planar fracture character on Compression Tests on a layer down 84cm’s down (Dec 13th interface).

UPLOADS:

Screen-Shot-2015-01-30-at-7.01.00-PM

…

Irwin Tenure

CB Avalanche Center January 31, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/30/2015
NAME: Irwin Guides

SUBJECT: Irwin Tenure
ASPECT: E, SE, S, SW, W
ELEVATION: 10,000-12,000

WEATHER: Steady light snow all day. high 23 at ridge top, 28 at lake. light east winds.

SNOWPACK: 2” fell warm and wet, which should hopefully help bonding to the widespread Melt-freeze crusts. Not enough snow to test that theory yet. Current surface is pretty well broken up with old frozen tracks, wind scallops, and/or new tracks in the breaker crust. Expecting snowfall amounts to be too small to develop reactive storm slabs, and also expecting decent bonding to the crusts and broken up surfaces. Could change if we see more snowfall than forecaster.…

8am Observation from Billy Barr in Gothic

CBAC January 30, 20152014-15 Observations

Still really nothing to report with just a shallow 1″ of new snow overnight and 0.06″ water in it, barely covering the crust. Snowpack is at 30½”. It has been between 28-35″ since Dec. 25. Currently overcast with off and on very light snow. –There were 7 record high temperature days in January and so far 13 this winter (starting Nov. 01). No record lows. billy…

Kebler Pass Area

CB Avalanche Center January 29, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/28/2015
NAME: Zach Guy

SUBJECT: Kebler Pass Area
ASPECT: E, SE, S, SW, W
ELEVATION: 10,000-12,000 ft

AVALANCHES: None

WEATHER: Light graupel and gusty west winds tapered midmorning, with broken skies clearing to scattered. Minor snow transport in the morning.

SNOWPACK: Less than 1 cm of graupel fell this morning on widespread melt freeze crusts from the last 2 days of warm and sunny. These crusts exist on E, SE, S, SW, and W aspects at all elevations, of varying thickness. On a WSW slope at 11,500 feet, a couple handpits showed the new melt freeze crust about 2” thick and pencil hardness on average, supportive on skis, and up to 4” thick and supportive to boot pen where the slope tilted more SW. Everything in the hand pit was refrozen, no freewater.

UPLOADS:…

avalanche on snodgrass

CB Avalanche Center January 29, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Crested Butte Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/28/2015
NAME: patrick donahue

SUBJECT: avalanche on snodgrass
ASPECT: North East, East
ELEVATION: 11,000

AVALANCHES: set off one slide that slid on old rain crust for 15 feet and then stepped down to the ground. ran approximately 200+ yards (from top to bottom of california bowl on snodgrass. crown was approximately 2 1/2 feet. bed surface was basel facets. no one was caught. propagated roughly 15-25 feet R1 D1+

WEATHER: partly cloudy around 32 degree F

SNOWPACK:

UPLOADS:…

Ruby Range

CB Avalanche Center January 28, 20152014-15 Observations

LOCATION: Kebler Pass Area
DATE OF OBSERVATION: 01/27/2015
NAME: Evan Ross

SUBJECT: Ruby Range
ASPECT: South, North West
ELEVATION: 11,000-13,000

AVALANCHES: Several recent loose wet avalanches on east and west aspects from the last 48 hours. A couple failed on these same aspects today. All of these avalanches where small, D1-1.5’s with a few D2’s in areas with lots of vertical relief.

WEATHER: Clear Sky over the Ruby Range and Elk Mountains. Clouds moving in from the west at the end of the day. Hot temps and no wind.

SNOWPACK: Alpine northwest slopes were a mixture of facets to the ground, near surface facets over a supportive slab, wind buff, or shallow hard wind slabs. The snow surface was cold and dry on this aspect all the way down to 10,800ft. On south and southwest aspects in the alpine the snow surface was wet for about 5cm and moist down 10-20cm deep on average, in the afternoon.

UPLOADS:…