Gunnison
SnowpackAnonymous · Dec 16, 2012 · Gunnison
Weather
skies were overcast all day and snow was falling all day as well. Intensity of the snowfall seemed to be pretty consistent all day, with snow tapering off toward 2pm. Temps were 25-30 all day as well. We had no wind all day. We had good visibility all day, also.
Snowpack
New storm snow was about 12", maybe a little more. Skinning up, the pen was about 10-12". Skiing down, more like 15" and deeper. The new storm snow felt like it was sitting on top of a more firm layer, based on ski pole probes along the skin track. Total snow depth in the open slopes seemed like it was 30-36". Avy Activity: I'm attaching a pic of a small pocket that pulled out on the skin track. This was soft slab, about 18" at its deepest point and didn't go very far (less than 10ft). Crown was about 30' wide, but the adjacent slopes had cracks throughout them, next to and below the pocket that pulled out. Looked like the rock in the picture was the trigger. We also had a third party report that a skier in another party triggered another larger slide, although nobody in our group saw it. In both cases, no skiers caught. On our first lap, we skied areas that didn't have any tracks. We moved cautiously in the open areas to skier's right, regrouping at or near the top of each roll. Almost every time we stopped, we experienced large rumbling collapses (that 7th grader getting squashed?), but no cracking and no movement. The slough wasn't even that bad. On the second lap, we experienced no collapses and no avy activity, with longer pitches between stops. By that time, the slope had seen at least 10 sets of tracks. It was interesting to see the slides taking place in the trees, versus on the open slopes. I guess that the trees and other vegetation in and around the skin track served as triggers for some of these slides?? All in all, great skiing and really great to see the snow!