Gunnison
Quick reportEvan Ross & Brie Yost · Feb 26, 2026 · Gunnison
Weather
Mostly cloudy for the first half of the day, and a few convective snow flurries rolled through, with a trace of new snow accumulating. Cloud cover decreased in the afternoon to partly cloudy. cloud cover: broken; recent snowfall (cm): .5
Snowpack
Ski pen is 0 to 5cm on average and boot pen was 17cm on a ENE facing slope at 10,000ft. The slab is 1F hard, and the recent melt freeze and ice lenses that formed during the 2/25 rain event are further making it harder to affect weak layers through the slab. We had a short and quiet tour and got lucky with two large collapses after hunting around for the right trigger point. The layer of concern remained the 2/11 interface. An ECTP test and the triggered avalanche both failed about 3 to 5cm below the 2/11 interface in 1.5mm rounding facets that were F+ hard. HS at this location was 110 to 120cm around ~10300f. The slab was about 55cm thick and 1F hard. The 2/25 rain event had produced a 3 to 5cm melt freeze crust below ~10,700ft and a very thin ice lens above 10,700ft. A low-angle NE-facing slope at 9,500ft had a semi-supportable melt-freeze crust in the morning with dry snow immediately under the crust. By the afternoon, the surface snow had become moist, and I got one area with shooting cracks breaking on large, moist facets at the ground. The total snowpack height there was only 45cm. . A got to large collapses, both on convece rolls, where the snowpack was below average in depth. NE, ~10,400ft.
Avalanche
Remotely triggered an avalanche from a couple of hundred feet away, after finding a thin spot on a convex roll and giving a heavy jump. This avalanche failed in 1.5mm rounding facets just below the 2/11 interface. A small wet looking avalanche ran recently at 9,000 ft along the East River.