Gunnison

Avalanche

(Tim Brown) Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Feb 2, 2019 · Gunnison

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Weather

Bluebird day with intense solar radiation, clear skies all day, warm (>0C at 11,000' at noon), CALM in am, LIGHT winds from NW in afternoon, no blowing snow.

Snowpack

Snow depth varied from ~100cm on Westerly aspects to ~160cm on East aspects in open terrain below treeline. The entire snowpack is mostly faceted throughout this elevation band, but the mid-pack was more supportive on the deeper, East-facing slopes. East aspects harbored three distinct layers of buried surface hoar (5cm, 45cm and 70cm below the surface) under fist hard, 4 finger hard and 1 finger hard slabs, respectively. Despite these concerning layers, snowpack tests (CTN, ECTX) failed to produce positive results on an East-facing 32 degree open slope at 10,900' with foot penetration of 45cm and ski penetration of 30cm. Continuous crust-facet combinations were present in the top 30-60cm on 30 degree Southwest-facing slopes without much recent loading, but absent on lower-angle West-facing slopes ~10,600'. The top 10-20cm became moist on steeper sun-exposed slopes below treeline today.

Avalanche

no new avalanches, cracking or collapsing