Gunnison
Snowpack- - · Jan 24, 2014 · Gunnison
Snowpack
travelled 11,000-12,800 S, NW, NE
Today we toured around Owen and Scarp's Ridge. Temperatures were warm, but the NW wind was gusty and cold, relentless on ridges and actively loading SE faces. The snow was variable all around, with wind crust and recycled powder on NE and NW faces and melt-freeze-wind crust on the S aspect. The snow was supportive, but we had small shooting cracks from a windslab on the surface high up in the NE bowl of Owen. In the middle of the bowl, I probed and found the snow to be deeper than my probe, snow depth> 10 ft. There was a hard layer about 6 ft down that was difficult to probe through. We noticed old slab avalanches on NE/E flanks of Afley and Richmond, and the old slide on Owen. Point releases had previously ran on S faces of Purple.
Today we toured around Owen and Scarp's Ridge. Temperatures were warm, but the NW wind was gusty and cold, relentless on ridges and actively loading SE faces. The snow was variable all around, with wind crust and recycled powder on NE and NW faces and melt-freeze-wind crust on the S aspect. The snow was supportive, but we had small shooting cracks from a windslab on the surface high up in the NE bowl of Owen. In the middle of the bowl, I probed and found the snow to be deeper than my probe, snow depth> 10 ft. There was a hard layer about 6 ft down that was difficult to probe through. We noticed old slab avalanches on NE/E flanks of Afley and Richmond, and the old slide on Owen. Point releases had previously ran on S faces of Purple.