Gunnison
SnowpackEric Murrow, Brie Yost · Jan 1, 2026 · Gunnison
Weather
Mild temperature, cloudy skies, light winds, and less than 2 inches new snow at 230pm. cloud cover: overcast; recent snowfall (cm): 4; snow avail for transport: small smounts
Snowpack
On northerly aspects, the Christmas rain/melt-freeze crust extends up to 10,700 feet with 6 to 8 inches of settled powder from last weekend's storm above. It becomes supportive to skis as you near 10,000 feet and below. The upper portion of Below Treeline terrain, 10,400 - 10,800 feet, the crust is thin and weak, with facets below and will be problematic with the incoming loading event (snowpack test produced ECTP V, 2 results on this interface with just an 8 inch soft slab). At elevations above the rain crust, this interface is weak facets 1-1.5mm in size. In this area, the slab that formed in December remains cohesive with 4-finger hardness; this terrain sits above local cold sinks, and the faceting process was not as aggressive. Basal weak layers are fist hard and well developed below the early December slab. We briefly crossed south and east features around 11,200 - 11,500 feet, and found thin melt-freeze crusts from recent warm weather and dry snow below (see images). This structure could collapse under a large load, but the dry snow is only lightly faceted beneath and looks less problematic than more northerly features. .