Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Apr 11, 2019 · Gunnison
Weather
Inside the milk jug - very poor visibility. Orographic showers kept the Elk Mountains socked in with thick low clouds and light precipitation.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces were heavily wind-affected. We found dense drifts up to 40cm deep in drifted locations. The snow felt very slabby. Changing wind directions over the prior 36 hours led highly variable and inconsistent loading patterns. At Crystal Pass, the ridgline runs east to west. Here we observed flip-flop loading. ] Recent northerly winds eroded and cut through the cornice lip, but the active and most recent loading pattern had built 30cm 4-finger slabs just below the ridge. These fresh slabs tapered quickly downslope. Overall, the Wind Slab problem was sporadic feature to feature, but touchy where you found drifts as shallow as 6". With exceptionally poor visibility, the key thing we could focus on to identify the drifted snow was the patterning between the wind-swept dusty crusts versus the whiter fresh drifts.
Avalanche
About a dozen valley crushers from March and several large Wet Slab avalanches from the last two weeks on steep southerly slopes between 9,000-10,000'. The next higher elevation band and "shoulder aspects" not facing right into the sun could become dangerous during the next prolonged warm up.