Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Jan 10, 2020 · Gunnison
Weather
Light orographic showers wrapped over the peaks of the West Elks. Cold front brought minor squalls, but no new snow during the day. Light blowing snow in the afternoon.
Snowpack
About 8 inches of new snow, containing 0.4 inches of SWE. The deepest snow we found was near Ohio and Beckwith Passes, at ~10,200' for both; HS 130cm. Below 9,000' in Horseranch Park area, the HS dropped to ~70cm. In shady or wind-sheltered terrain above 9,000', the snowpack was mostly right side up and supportive on a snowmobile, but with a pronounced weak layer of Surface Hoar 8" cm down below the surface. Any terrain over 40 degrees including alpine summits to valley bottom gully walls all showed Loose Dry avalanching, breaking at roughly this depth. In shallower areas with a snowpack around 70cm, below about 9,000', the snowpack was much less supportive. It was punchy on a snowmobile. On sunny slopes, the same 0.4" of water sits above a thin melt freeze crust with large facets below. We got multiple ECTP 6-9 scores across several terrain features, breaking on the facets below the uppermost crust. This crust / facet combination would be come a problem on southerly aspects with another 1" of water.
Avalanche
Many, many Loose Dry avalanches, indicating widespread shallow instabilities in the upper snowpack. No slab avalanches observed.