Gunnison

Avalanche

Public Public · Feb 18, 2022 · Gunnison

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Weather

Seasonably cool temperatures with gusty winds above treeline and generally light winds in the basin.

Snowpack

We skied a northwest-facing piece of terrain near treeline and found around 5 inches of new snow resting on a patchwork of thin wind boards or soft near-surface facets. We selected terrain to avoid recent and previous wind-loading. Probed extensively on the uptrack looking for thicker hard slabs beneath the new snow and did not find anything of concern.

Avalanche

I observed a couple of natural slab avalanches in the near treeline elevation band – small size on northeast and east aspects. These slides were not visible at 3 pm on Thursday afternoon.