Gunnison

Snowpack

Evan Ross · Jan 5, 2018 · Gunnison

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Weather

Weather: Moderate westerly wind at upper elevation ridgelines. Partly cloudy with mostly high thin clouds.

Snowpack

Snowpack: The poor thing is so beat. The white looking mountains sure look nice from a distance, but up close their snow surfaces sure are variable and worked over by the weather. For this area, low danger travel advice fit perfect and we didn't really find much of a concern as it relates to potential avalanches, from low angle to very steep slopes. South and southeast slopes have patchy snow coverage. Sunny easterly slopes had warm snow surfaces and small NSF. Shaded easterly slopes and northeasterly to north facing slopes were cold and weak. Again, snow surfaces on all aspects could also be eroded by the wind, or have wind board, or have variable crusts, or be soft form the sun, or protected form everything and soft. Couldn't really paint a trend as its all just variable and all over the place. Couldn't find any Christmas slabs of much concern. A watchful eye is still warranted.