Gunnison
Quick reportEric Murrow · Dec 19, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Partly cloudy skies with light wind below treeline and a few moderate gusts at ridgetop. cloud cover: scattered; snow avail for transport: small smounts
Snowpack
The snowpack is weak throughout this area and generally 30 - 45cm deep. Even the typical wind-loaded spots along the ridgeline were soft except thin, windboard at the surface from the recent wind event. Snow surfaces are a mix of soft, breaker windboard, and supportive wind-stiffened snow. The small amount of snowfall and extreme winds covered the weak facets below, which may act as a buffer between the next storm and the weaker snow below. We did not encounter any shooting cracks or slab formation from the recent wind event. The thickest deposit I found was just 2 to 3 inches thick. I didn't find any surface hoar that formed earlier in the week intact. The winds likely blasted it all away. No cracking or collapsing. A few small sections of windboard produced cracks up to a ski length.
Avalanche
There was significant natural avalanche activity in this terrain during the storm around 12/6. Those avalanches have been coded in another observation a week ago.