Gunnison

Avalanche

Eric Murrow · Nov 11, 2021 · Gunnison

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Weather

Partly to mostly cloudy skies. West-northwesterly winds were blasting snow into the atmosphere in the AM but relaxed and were only drifting on and off by the PM.

Snowpack

Storm totals were about 10? at 12,000 feet. We avoided the most obvious drifted, northerly terrain features in the area, but did stomp on a few small slopes around 12K that faced north without signs of instability. No signs of instability on wind-sheltered slopes facing east near and just above treeline.

Avalanche

From the pavement, I spotted 2 naturals along Scarp Ridge. D2 on the “Shield” and a D1.5 in Peeler Basin. Visibility was poor, but both avalanches appeared to only involve recent storm snow.