Avalanche forecast

Southeast Mountains

Crested Butte Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

It's another great day to ski and ride in the alpine, where stability is better and the snowpack is denser.  More dry loose avalanches were triggered yesterday from shady aspects near and below treeline, continuing the week-long string of easily triggered "facet sluffs".  Most of these are harmless in size unless they drag you over rocks or push you into trees.   In terrain closer to the Crested Butte inversions, where the snowpack is weakest, dry loose avalanches can entrain all of the snowpack and are harder to manage safely.  For this reason, we are highlighting MODERATE danger in the Southeast Mountains and LOW danger in the Northwest Mountains.  

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Dry

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1

    On very steep terrain sheltered from the sun and wind, you can easily trigger sluffs where the snow surface is loose and cohesionless. These skier triggered loose avalanches from Climax Chutes on Thursday highlight the problem.   In the Southeast Mountains, facet sluffs have been gouging to the ground and are more challenging to manage than typical sluffing.  While most of these avalanches are small in size, they can easily cause harm because they will drag you over rocks, stumps, and bare ground.  In terrain with long, sustained runouts, slides will grow in size as they entrain more snow, and in rare cases,  may reach up to D2 in size.  

Avalanche Discussion

Our forecasts may sound like a broken record, but no, you are just listening to the longest, worst song ever recorded.  If anything is changing, it's that weak snow is getting weaker.  Our forecast crew was above Pittsburg yesterday monitoring for those changes, and thankfully, reported that the sluffing is still confined to the upper snowpack, in contrast with what we have observed in terrain closer to town.  That is the reason why we are drawing a distinction in danger ratings between the Northwest and Southeast forecast zones right now.  The full-depth facet sluffs closer to Crested Butte are entraining more snow and are more challenging to manage.   On specific terrain features in the Southeast Mountains  (shady aspects near and below treeline with sustained steep pitches), heightened avalanche conditions exist because getting caught in one of these sluffs will result in a dangerous ride over rocks, stumps, and more.  Hazards like this are more isolated as you move further up valley and into the Northwest Mountains: there are much fewer slopes there where I'd be worried about getting into trouble in.   Our media gallery below demonstrates the current conditions quite well.  Observers are reporting good stability and a deeper, more supportive snowpack at high elevations.  With the unseasonably warm and sunny weather, it's a great day to go tick off an alpine objective.   With our exceptionally weak snowpack, the window for green light conditions above treeline will surely change whenever we return to a snowy pattern.  

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