Location: Crested Butte Area
Date of Observation: 12/29/2018
Name: James Bivens
Subject: Touchy Wind Slabs in Red Lady Glades and Evan’s Basin
Aspect: South East, South, South West
Elevation:
Avalanches:
We observed a D1.5 R2 avalanche on a steeper, east facing slope in the Glades. It appeared natural and we believe it failed because of western winds coming across the ridge top and loading the slope. There was another similar avalanche a little ways up n the same slope as well.
Weather: Cold and Sunny
Snowpack: We did not observe any instability signs from deep in the snow pack (like whoomps, collapses, and shooting cracks) (our slope angles stayed below 35). However, we did observe instabilitiy in wind drifted features. Jumping on cornices above the glades produced cracks through the slab. The slabs were a few inches deep on the isolated southern features we examined. We also broke off one of these isolated slabs off on a roller (created from wind deposition east of a tree) by skiing over it. Skiing was fun in the Glades and the lower half of Evan’s with dense pow and down lower we encountered some breaker crust.
Photos:
