Gunnison
SnowpackZach Guy · Dec 26, 2012 · Gunnison
Weather
Moderate temps (low 20’s?), wind increasing in the afternoon to moderate from the SW with strong gusts at ridgetop; light wind all morning. S-1 to S2 snowfall through most of the day with occasional lulls. Overcast sky.
Snowpack
The storm snow from today and 12/24 (settled to 6-8â€) remains incohesive and showing no signs of instability except for very shallow surface sluffs. This snow rests on a variety of surfaces: near surface facets, DF grains, and meltfreeze crusts. Above treeline on W aspects the new snow remains fist hardness but has a minor amount of cohesion; ski cuts produced no signs of instability. Thin surface crusts formed 12/25 on steep SE through SW aspects and were buried today. We also examined older bedsurfaces (from avalanches 12/17-12/19) on West aspects near/below treeline. In some locations, 3-4 mm depth hoar remains at the ground, below several inches of 4F mixed forms and/or deteriorating crusts with roughly 1’ of fist hardness snow above. Not concerning now but worth noting as more snow re-loads. . No change to older, well described structure. No avalanche activity, but had one skier triggered large collapse on basal facets on Widowmaker (W, BTL) which caused shooting cracks and the whole slab to move a couple of inches downslope.