Gunnison

Avalanche

Zach Guy · Dec 27, 2014 · Gunnison

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Weather

Weather: Arctic cold!! Calm winds in the bowl, light snow transport off of the ridgetop. Few clouds.

Snowpack

Snowpack: 6 to 10" of fresh snow from Christmas storm, over denser, wind stiffened surface left at the end of the Solstice storm. Minimal signs of instability in this new snow; just a few very thin and narrow slab releases and a handful of loose snow avalanches.

Avalanche

Avalanches: Checked out the avalanche on Mt. Owen that occurred around 12/22. It looks like there were 3 sympathetic slides (probably not connected), each about 600 feet wide, the largest of them running 1900 vertical feet into Robinson Basin. The crown was generally 100 to 150 cm deep, failed on December 13th facet layer, which was generally about 80 cm above the ground, except for the shallow rocky areas, where the layer was close to the ground (