Washington Gulch and near town of CB

There was little threat of wet avalanche activity today as gusty winds, cloud cover, and cool temps arrived before noon and prevented the snowpack from becoming weak and saturated with meltwater.  A burst of snowfall around noon/1 pm produced close to 2 inches of snow very quickly at 11,000 feet and fell on soft/moist crust below treeline and frozen surfaces near/above treeline.  Looking towards the long-term future this spring, the snowpack on the south half of the compass appears to have meltwater through the entire snowpack (at least in places with less than 230cm total depth) and as you transition to the north half of the compass, meltwater has only moved into the upper snowpack with deeper weak layers remaining dry.  Any lingering Persistent Slab issues appear to only exist at high elevations above treeline.

My goal was to track meltwater in the snowpack (see images).  On an east slope at 11,000 feet, meltwater had moved through the entire snowpack into basal facets.  Ice columns were present through the entire snowpack down to moist/wet basal facets.  On a northeast slope at 11,600 feet, meltwater has moved down only 40cm into the upper snowpack with multiple ice lenses present.  On a north slope in Crested Butte at 8,900 feet meltwater appeared to drain through the entire 150cm snowpack; I was a bit unsure as ice columns were not present through the entire slab above basal depth hoar but basal layers were very moist/wet.  Long story short: slopes on the south half of the compass shallower than 200cm appear to have meltwater to the ground and the lowest elevation north slopes too.  The north half of the compass presents the possibility of Wet Slabs later this spring if large amounts of meltwater flood weak layers deep in the snowpack.  Upper-elevation northerlies have meltwater/ice layers only in the uppermost portion of the snowpack and, as typical for Colorado, will not see meltwater move deeply into the snowpack until May.