Gunnison

Avalanche

Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Mar 9, 2014 · Gunnison

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Weather

WEATHER: Clear, Freezing cold in am / Scorching hot in pm, mostly dead calm winds

Snowpack

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: Surface faceting obvious, and dry snow remaining on any slopes that have a Northerly tilt to them, or that are deeply shaded. Even in valley bottoms. Anything with a direction conducive to solar gain, had moist surface snow and/or sun crusts evident. Travelled on slopes up to 40* with no instabilities seen. Watched snowmobilers high marking 1/2 way up the West Face of Gothic with no results.

Avalanche

Observed two recent small (D1) wet slabs/storm slab avalanches from past 48 hours. One on Gothic below the choke in The Spoon and one high on the West Facing chutes on Snodgrass. Both look to have only entrained the upper part of the snowpack and did not travel very far down their respective run outs.