Lawinenlagebericht

Northwest Mountains

Crested Butte Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Sat
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Kernpunkte

Heightened avalanche conditions are mostly driven by the threat of warming-related cornice falls, some of which could produce destructive avalanches.  Limit your time on slopes below large, overhanging cornices.  Wet loose avalanches will become a shallow threat on sunbaked slopes once the snow surface becomes wet and mushy.   The safest riding is on cold aspects without cornices above.  

Lawinenprobleme

  • Cornices

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1.5–3

    Large, overhanging cornices continue to fall on a daily basis; this pattern is expected to continue under the current warming trend.   Some are capable of triggering destructive slab avalanches, while others are trundling down slope entraining large amounts of snow with car-sized chunks of cornice debris.  Limit your exposure on slopes with large cornices above, and give them a wide berth if you are traveling along corniced ridgelines.  

    A recent cornice fall in Redwell Basin.  Minimize your exposure to terrain like this.  

  • Loose Wet

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

    Sluffs will be easy to trigger or could release naturally off of very steep and rocky slopes as the recent snow gets wet later today. Today's wet loose avalanches will be shallow and generally harmless unless they carry you into a terrain trap.  Move to less consequential terrain, lower slope angles, or colder aspects once the snow surface starts to rollerball, pinwheel, or shed naturally.  

    You can trigger avalanches like this as the recent snow gets wet and mushy today.  This slide is small but could hurt you by pushing you into a tree. 

Avalanche Discussion

Wind slabs from the Monday/Tuesday storm are expected to be generally healed up now.  The primary concern today is the threat of natural cornice falls driven by warming temperatures.  After a nearly-record-breaking winter, those backcountry bombs are huge right now and we continue to observe a few cornice falls each day.   Some of them have triggered persistent slab avalanches on slopes below, such as this long-running avalanche off of Gothic.   It's tricky to predict when and which cornices will fall, but easy to identify and avoid the looming hazard.  

Persistent slabs are gradually becoming increasingly stubborn and isolated with each day of dry weather.  Apart from cornice-triggered persistent slabs, our greatest concerns for human triggering are in areas that have unusually shallow snow depths (less than about 5 feet or 150 cm), more commonly in the Southeast Mountains.   This remotely triggered slide near Independence Pass yesterday highlights the issue.

Yesterday we observed a few small wet loose avalanches at lower elevations as the recent snow got wet and slid on the underlying dusty crust layer.   With warmer temperatures today, I expect we'll see the issue expanding to higher elevations in terrain that saw more than about 6" of snow earlier this week.  That's more common in the Northwest Mountains.  Shallow dry sluffs are also a minor concern on northerly aspects.  

Party for the People! Join us this Friday, April 7 at the Talk of the Town from 5-9 p.m. so we can thank everyone for their support this season with free beer and music from Atmospheric Whiskey River.

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