CAIC

CAIC: Colorado Avalanche Information Center

BC Zone Observation Report

Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Gunnison

Details

Date: 2022/11/15

Observer: CBAC Staff
Organization: Forecaster, CAIC

CAIC Comments

from CBAC database

Location

BC Zone: Gunnison
Area Description: Mt. Baldy, traveled on E to N aspects to 11,900?

Weather

Weather Description: Too cold for my toes. Light breeze, no snow transport. Scattered cloud cover. An inch of snow in the past 24 hours.

Snowpack

Snowpack Description: Found ourselves on a particularly chatty east facing slope that produced numerous collapses and shooting cracks ranging from 10 to 50 feet, failing on a thin, faceted crust (Nov 3). Once we got to a ridge where it was more drifted, we popped a couple of slabs by collapsing the slope while skinning. No other signs of instability on other slopes.

Avalanches

Avalanche Description: Intentionally ski triggered a pair of small slab avalanches on an east facing, cross drifted ridge near treeline. The slabs were up to 12? thick, ~25 ft wide, 4F+ on average. One previous natural on a NE aspect, likely from last week. All small in size.

Date

Location/Path

#

Elev

Asp

Type

Trig

SizeR

SizeD

View

2022/11/15 ^†

Schofield Pass

1

TL

E

SS

AS / c

R1

D1

View

2022/11/10 ^†

Schofield Pass

1

>TL

NE

SS

N

R1

D1

Media

Images

<b>Figure 1:</b> Looking downslope from a skier triggered slab above Emerald Lake. November 15, 2022. (<a href=javascript:void(0); onClick=win=window.open('https://caic-production.imgix.net/zwgrdrpurkqelpkx74wxblc5oo26?ixlib=php-3.1.0&s=31e96d435002301bca301064ade013b5','caic_media','resizable=1,height=820,width=840,scrollbars=yes');win.focus();return false;>see full sized image</a>)

<b>Figure 2:</b> Shooting crack, drifted slope. East-facing, near-treeline. November 15, 2022. (<a href=javascript:void(0); onClick=win=window.open('https://caic-production.imgix.net/q9r3xqmhmbc44tunxs6q8nzcndp3?ixlib=php-3.1.0&s=56bd1cc7750936ae4da30e61c759d297','caic_media','resizable=1,height=820,width=840,scrollbars=yes');win.focus();return false;>see full sized image</a>)

<b>Figure 3:</b> Shooting crack on a slope without much drifting. East-facing, near-treeline. November 15, 2022. (<a href=javascript:void(0); onClick=win=window.open('https://caic-production.imgix.net/keg4o0fawh2jhl68inq4d2gw7joa?ixlib=php-3.1.0&s=d4d4527ab17a819e14e25b0680b6c3a7','caic_media','resizable=1,height=820,width=840,scrollbars=yes');win.focus();return false;>see full sized image</a>)