Gunnison

Snowpack

John MacKinnon · Feb 11, 2012 · Gunnison

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Weather

Mild day with surprisingly warm temperatures, strong solar radiation, and calm winds. Airtemp of 0 c at 1:30 pm. Cloud cover increased throughout afternoon, but began dissipating after 430 pm.

Snowpack

Below treeline middle and upper snowpack is gaining strength, but bottom third remains weak facets and depth hoar. Top 15 cm of recent storm snow is resting on a buried surface facet layer. HS varied on shady aspects from 85 cm to over 1 meter. Compression tests on north and east aspects all showed sudden collapses on the weak facets in the bottom third of the snowpack. Tests all broke in the moderate to hard range. ECTP 30 (SC) indicates potential for propagation still exists despite the fact it is getting harder to initiate fractures in the basal facets.