Snodgrass

In shallower snowpack areas around Crested Butte, the Southeast Mountains forecast zone, the snowpack is losing strength in sheltered terrain below treeline.  Triggering a slab avalanche below treeline is trending towards unlikely, but not impossible, if you find an isolated drifted feature.  Many start zones ran naturally during the storm, which further reduces the places to find trouble in this area.  Just enough strength remains in the snowpack to keep your skis off the ground while riding/skinning, but no more.  

We produced a few collapses on the north half of the compass, but none travelled beyond 15 feet. Cracking was infrequent with collapses.

In general, we found a snowpack depth of around 40 to 60 cm on northerly slopes in these areas.  The faceting process continues to weaken the snowpack structure, but thankfully holds just enough strength to keep skis off the ground and prevent a Loose Dry avalanche problem.  Slab avalanche issues below treeline in this area would be few and far between due to a weakened slab.  Only in isolated places with some wind stiffening or loading would you find a cohesive slab and potentially pry out a small avalanche below treeline.

Snow surfaces became moist by midday on east slopes at 10,800 feet.