Lawinenlagebericht

Southeast Mountains

Crested Butte Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Sat
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
1 · Gering
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 9 months ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Light wind-loading yesterday kicked off a round of small avalanches on Gothic Mountain. (1 & 2). You will need to manage wind-loaded terrain features today to avoid triggering a similar avalanche. Above treeline elevations are the most suspect, as lower elevations more often lack enough snow for an avalanche problem. However, a keen powder hound can find just enough snow to ride on grassy slopes at those lower elevations. 

Lawinenprobleme

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–1.5

    Persistent weak layers are fairly widespread across multiple aspects. The more isolated component of the avalanche problem is the distribution of slabs above those weak layers. Use caution around previously wind-loaded terrain features, where there is an increased chance of finding those slabs. Human-triggered avalanches are possible where you find this strong over weak layering.

    An example of a wind-loaded terrain feature producing a shooting crack. In this example, the snow was blown from right to left, forming a thicker slab on the lee side. (12/1/2025)

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1

    Light NW winds yesterday kicked off a round of small avalanches. The Scarps Ridge weather station at 12,000ft recorded a bump in westerly winds this morning. Increasing with 20-30mpg average wind speeds and gusts into the 40s. We can expect those slabs to have grown overnight and remain sensitive to triggering today. 

    A small wind slab that ran on 12/4. South aspect at 12,000ft on Gothic Mountain. 

Avalanche Discussion

Yesterday was notable for a couple of reasons. We observed the first large avalanche of this season. New snow has slowly accumulated this week, and the avalanche problem has now begun to grow in size. The other notable was that just this light wind-loading triggered this avalanche and many other small avalanches. This could be Mother Nature's early warning of the avalanche cycle that will be kicked off by the next incoming storm. We will see the avalanche danger begin to rise today in areas that see active wind-loading, before ramping up into Saturday with the arrival of a strong wind event and accumulating snow. 

A layer of weak snow is fairly continuous on the north side of the compass from snowfall in October and mid-November.  A storm last Sunday, November 30th, deposited 8 to 16 inches of snow across this weak layer, accompanied by northwesterly winds strong enough to redistribute the snow at upper elevations. Since Monday, billy barr in Gothic has recorded another .54" of SWE.  A small natural cycle was documented on Monday, and signs of instability were observedfollowing that storm earlier this week. (Anthracites, Mount Baldy, Baxter Basin). While yesterday's small avalanche cycle can be viewed in this observation.  

Upcoming Events: 

  • Holiday Tree Sale: December 3rd-5th from 3 pm-7 pm at Ace Hardware
  • Avalanche Awareness Night: Saturday, December 6th at the Center for the Arts. Doors at 5, show at 6:30.
  • Beacon Brush-Up: Sunday, December 7th, 9 am - 2 pm at the Community School

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