Gunnison
AvalancheZach Guy · Mar 5, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Settled storm totals were 45 cm at the base of Ruby (11,200') and 55 cm at the base of Owen (11,400') in terrain with minimal drifting. Some mid level clouds hung around this morning, skies become mostly clear midday, and clouds began building again this afternoon. Mild temps. cloud cover: scattered; wind loading: previous; recent snowfall (cm): 55; snow avail for transport: moderate amounts
Snowpack
I tested numerous small, steep slopes (sheltered or lightly drifted) facing NE, E, and SE near treeline to see if storm slabs were still reactive and if the 3/3 interface was giving persistent weak layer signals in this snow bullseye zone. The snowpack was quiet. On northerlies, the 3/3 interface is a small grained (.3 to .5) layer with minor faceting. The current snow surface looks weaker: 1 mm fragmenting stellar dendrites on northerlies and .5 mm radiation recrystallization on southerlies. The storm snow became moist and gloppy on southerly aspects at upper elevations, wet at lower elevations by this afternoon. . Most of our travels were in terrain with minor wind affect, but in a few features where winds had stiffened the snow, we produced some cracking up to 5' or 6' long. This was at about 12,000'. Rollerballs and small wet loose avalanches ran naturally as the day warmed up on sunnier aspects.
Avalanche
We skier triggered a couple of small wind slabs on small, steep slopes. These were on southerly aspects near treeline, and entrained wet loose debris once in motion. Several small wet loose avalanches ran midday from hot, rocky slopes, and we skier triggered one on a southerly aspect at 12,000'. There were a handful of D1 to D2 wind slabs that ran in the Ruby Range yesterday, no step downs.