Gunnison

Avalanche

Nick Springstead · Feb 6, 2020 · Gunnison

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Weather

Above treeline west winds were strong to extreme. Ridge tops (and Taylor Pass) were completely wind-scoured. Snowfall was intermittent throughout the afternoon, but when we triggered the avalanche around 2pm, it was snowing (S2). Sky was overcast.

Snowpack

Very thin snowpack along the ridges and near Taylor Pass. Very large and widespread cornice development on S through E aspects above treeline. Below the ridge, on a SSE aspect at ~11,500, we found a combination of newly deposited pencil hard windslab (20cm) on top of a recent sun crust. This crust was ~2cm thick. Below this crust the snowpack was mostly facets, 2-5mm in size, with mature depth hoar (5mm+) as the basal layer. Average HS was ~1m

Avalanche

HS-AMr-D2-O at 11,990 on SSE aspect. 1-3m crown but only ran 100-300 feet. We triggered it from several hundred feet away as we descended south from Taylor Pass summit on the summer road. We stopped at the parking area and saw the new avalanche. Even with the strong wind, the crown and debris was very angular and obviously fresh. The next morning we noticed several smaller natural avalanches on similar aspects and elevations.