Lawinenlagebericht

Southeast Mountains

Crested Butte Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Mon
Hochgebirge
3 · Erheblich
Waldgrenze
3 · Erheblich
Unterhalb
3 · Erheblich
Open full map
Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 3 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Natural avalanche activity continued into Saturday, and it appears that a close call occurred with a large, human-triggered avalanche in Red Lady Bowl.  Avalanche conditions remain dangerous on Sunday as the snowpack slowly catches its breath from a multiday loading period.  Given the recent natural avalanches on wind drifted slopes, it's an easy choice to avoid leeward terrain features to reduce your risk of triggering an avalanche.  In sheltered areas, you are likely to trigger an avalanche 1 to 2 feet deep on the north half of the compass; a layer of buried surface hoar appears to be very sensitive to human triggers.  Conservative slopes angles and cautious route finding will help reduce the chance of triggering a deadly avalanche.  You can reliably avoid triggering an avalanche by sticking to slopes less than about 30 degrees without steep slopes above.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Persistent Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Likely
    Größe
    1.5–2.5

    A new round of weak layers was buried on February 2nd. These weak layers consist of widespread surface hoar and facets on most east, north, and west-facing slopes, and along with some faceted crusts on higher elevation southerly aspects. Slabs about 2 feet thick over these weak layers can be triggered by skiers and riders. This avalanche problem can be remotely triggered from flat terrain, or may propagate further than expected.  Shooting cracks or collapses are a clear sign of danger, but these obvious signs of instability will not always show themselves before an avalanche releases.  There is isolated potential to trigger older, larger slabs on weak layers deeper in the snowpack, most likely from shallow terrain features or step-down avalanches.  

    You can reliably avoid trouble by selecting terrain with slope angles less than 30 degrees that are free from overhead steep terrain.

     

    A recent large natural on Mount Owen.  This is a good example of an avalanche breaking on weak layers well below the recent storm snow.  This avalanche would be difficult to survive.

    (2/17/2024)

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Likely
    Größe
    1.5–2

    Westerly winds steadily drifted snow from about Wednesday through early Saturday.  Frequent snowfall made ample snow available for transport onto leeward terrain features. This has created dangerous wind slabs and is further loading persistent weak layers buried deeper in the snowpack.  Avalanches that start in recently drifted storm snow could "step down" and release a much larger avalanche. 

    Fresh Wind Slab avalanche on a drifted east slope of Whetstone.

    (2/17/2024) Photo: Eric Murrow

Avalanche Discussion

The recent storm only departed the area yesterday with snowfall ending early Saturday morning and wind-loading continued through the middle part of Saturday.  The snowpack is struggling to adjust to the new burden after multiple days of snow and west winds loading an untrustworthy snowpack.  Clear skies Saturday allowed observers to take in the scale of recent natural avalanche activity and it painted a clear picture of hazardous conditions on leeward terrain.  Take a look at our observations page to see the wreckage.  Please check out this observation from a presumed close call in Red Lady Bowl.  Although we are uncertain of the details of the Red Lady Bowl avalanche it appears to be human-triggered.

In both the Northwest and Southeast Mountains forecast zones, avoiding drifted terrain is a simple way to greatly reduce your risk of triggering an avalanche.  Dangerous natural avalanches ran in shallower parts of the forecast zone like Gothic Peak and Double Top and deeper areas like Mount Owen and Mount Baldy.  The most concerning aspects face northeast, east, southeast, and south.  Avalanche size on drifted terrain is deadly with the potential for some avalanches to be unsurvivable.  

Avalanche conditions vary in the sheltered terrain across the forecast zones.  In the Northwest Mountains where the snowpack is deeper, you can trigger avalanches in the recent storm snow and deeper on a layer of buried surface hoar/facets.  Observers reported natural avalanches on northerly and southerly aspects in sheltered terrain.  Skillful assessment is required to make good decisions about riding in avalanche terrain.  Avalanches in the storm snow may remain smaller, but if you release an avalanche 3 feet deep on the buried surface hoar it will become large.  You can simplify the conditions and complexity by choosing conservative slope angles.

In the Southeast Mountains, the snowpack has been showing more signs of instability and an increase in natural activity in sheltered terrain particularly on west through north through east aspects.  Observers noted frequent collapses on surface hoar around 1.5 feet deep (ob 1, ob 2) on Snodgrass and near valley bottom by Crested Butte.  The northerly and easterly aspects in sheltered terrain were screaming danger on Saturday.  Expect to trigger an avalanche if you enter steep terrain highlighted by the Persistent Slab rose.  Selecting lower-angled slopes is your best defense against triggering this likely avalanche problem.

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