Gunnison
SnowpackCBAC Staff · Nov 29, 2023 · Gunnison
Weather
CLOUD COVER Few TEMPERATURE (F) Not Observed NEW OR RECENT SNOWFALL Not Observed RAIN/SNOW LINE Not Observed SNOW AVAILABLE FOR TRANSPORT Small Amounts WIND LOADING None WEATHER SUMMARY Cold valley bottom with mild temps above the cold pool. Light winds.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is generally weak and shallow. As we gained elevation, collapses and cracks began to appear near 10,700 feet. Most collapses were fairly localized but several traveled a few hundred feet. While investigating the snowpack, it was hard to discern much change in the slab stiffness from areas where we did and didn't get collapses. In sheltered areas, we never found more than a few inches of 4-finger hard snow in the slab; mostly fist-hard slab with thin, soft crusts capping fist-hard weak layers. One collapse above a start zone in Purple Palace traveled around 250 feet and prompted us to take a lower-angle route back down and skip skiing the steeper terrain. Take a look at the images of the hand hardness of the snowpack on northeasterly slopes at the upper limit of the below treeline elevation band; it's soft and weak but still has just enough strength to propagate a failure. Signs of instability appeared on shady slopes around 10,700 feet. Out top elevation was just over 11,000 feet.