Gunnison
SnowpackJosh Hirshberg · Jan 17, 2012 · Gunnison
Weather
Significant new snow and some loading below treeline. By 15:00 HST was reaching 35cm on deeper sheltered BTL slopes. Precip rate averaged S2 with heavy periods of S3. HST is sitting on well-developed NSF on non-solar slopes. Winds were generally Light w/ Moderate gusts shifting from SW-NW. Skies were mostly obscured, but we saw some brief periods of decreasing clouds.
Snowpack
Saw significant cracking and propagation up to 20m. Triggered widespread cracking on many small rolls, banks, and smaller gulleys. This was not just one shooting crack, but an entire small slope covered in cracks. We only triggered one very small sluff on a bank. Most slopes we skied were under 30° and not long enough to see any movement. We did belayed ski cuts on a larger slope over 35° with no results. In hindsight this slope had been receiving upslope N valley winds, which contributed to the lack of results and low HST. Heard a first hand report of remote triggering a small slope from over 100ft away.