Gunnison
AvalancheArt Burrows · Dec 11, 2016 · Gunnison
Weather
Storm passed through Saturday afternoon, eve, Sunday morning: Warm storm snow with mid afternoon clearing on Sunday. Winds were 20mph gusting to 40mph during the peak of the storm. The storm yielded about 20cm of new snow.
Snowpack
Opa Hut. SE 11,800' ECTP 20 failure @ 21cm on 1mm facet layer. Total snow depth was 65cm. The two problem layers were 20 cm of basal facets and one surface hoar layer at 35 cm. Structure was somewhat better than I expected after our cold week and SE was showing some bridging between old facets. Found good skiing and moderately good structure a 25 to 30° slope South East aspect at 11,800 feet. No soft slab and only very limited very local settling from the new snow of 20 to 25 cm. With new snow coming this week we should see increased stress on the weak facets @ 20cm from ground but also increased strengh after the storm cycle due to compression and better insulation which should create better bridging in old facets. 12,000 soft and hard slabs on windy leeward side of Itlalian Pass, however leeward loaded areas below 12,000' were free of soft slabs in spite of last nights strong winds. Average snow depths are between 55 and 60 CM Dense wind slab on the Italian pass at 12,000 surprisingly little wind slab at Treeline in spite of high winds last night.
Avalanche
Cathedral. ENE 11,000 to 13,000' Natural during storm. Saw only one natural on the east NE facing peak in front of Cathedral above Ashcroft. Possibly due to cornice or storm loading on weak NE facts. A bit too far away to tell. See photo.