Gunnison

We traveled out to Mount Owen to inspect an avalanche that was reported to run at 11am off the east ridge of Mount Owen. We noted three other fresh human-triggered avalanches on east-facing slopes, although the Mt. Ownen avalanche was the largest. Investigating the Mt. Owen slide, it appeared that a group of sled-access snowboarders likely triggered this avalanche remotely from low angled terrain around 600 feet away. The avalanche broke in the February facet layer. The slab ranged from around 50cm to 110cm thick (estimated as we did not measure across the entire crown face). The slab thickness and overall snowpack depth were shallower than other nearby slopes. Previous avalanche activity on this slope removed some portion of the mid-pack. This avalanche was large in size (D2) and could have easily buried a person.
Late in the afternoon, an avalanche was reported to hit Kebler Pass Road. This was a Wet Slab avalanche. It appeared to be remotely-triggered by a snowbike based on a nearby snowbike track. Visible cracks connected between the snowbike track and the flank of the avalanche. The avalanche covered a little more than half the width of the groomed road. This too was a repeat-performer avalanche, having run on December 24. This avalanche released in the February facets, below the prominent dust strip. About an hour after the slide occurred, we found the dryspell facets were still wet from meltwater although the bed surface and snow surface were now shaded and refrozen.
En route to the Mt. Owen slide, we observed two fresh snowboarder triggered slabs in the recent storm snow, also on east-facing terrain, near treeline. Both small avalanches broke just below the crust formed on Wednesday, only a few inches thick.