Crested Butte Sun Report
Went up Splains Gulch today. Lots of fresh up there, over the hood on the whooped trail. Extremely tender snow and dumping all day. Set off many tiny slides on almost every convex roll I came over. They would have ripped huge if on a long enough slope, but compressive support from the bottom of the slopes held the slab in place or would only allow it to move a couple feet. Saw cracks shoot 40-50 feet in both directions from me when I turned around on the trail, and also remotely triggered several slides (again very small). Very consistent failures on the snow from last week and the older facets. So not on the new snow/old snow interface, but about 6" below that. The slabs I saw move were about 18" deep. Saw one small natural slide too. I suspect a large natural avy cycle is in process right now, or in the next few hours as the wind continues to load the weak base layers.
Snowboarded in tight trees and low angle slopes, had a blast. Its fun in Crested Butte, but was blowing like a MF when I got back to the truck (which was damn near stuck in the lot). So tomorrow will be cold with wind slabs. The big stuff will kill. Probably before you even get to the fun part of it, remote triggers!!