Gunnison

Snowpack

Ben Pritchett · Dec 28, 2019 · Gunnison

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Weather

Very light snowfall, light winds, and occasional sunshine through cloud cover

Snowpack

Toured mainly on south through west-facing terrain below treeline. HS ranged from around 50cm below 9000? and increased to around 75cm at 11000?. Snowpack was just barely supportive to skis making for shallow but nice riding conditions. Slabs were only up to 4f hardness with boot penetration always to ground in this area. Due west-facing terrain lacked any significant melt/freeze crusts, but due south had a supportive melt/freeze crust beneath the past few days snowfall (~9? HST since 12/24 @ 11k) even SW at 11000? had a supportive to skis crust beneath new snow. Minimal avalanche hazard through this terrain, but surely is a weak foundation if we get a significant storm in the coming weeks.