Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Feb 13, 2018 · Gunnison

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Weather

Continuous snow showers all afternoon. Breaks in the clouds warmed the snow surface quickly, but the breaks were rare. HST 16" w/ 1.7" SWE. Steady light SW winds, picked up to Moderate around 4pm.

Snowpack

Surprisingly no cracking. Several deep grumbly rumbles in open meadows with the new load sitting on a crust on West aspects above 10,500'. On west and northwest aspects I went looking to see if the character and strength of the crust made an impact on propagation potential. Only ECTX results observed. Still lacking a good stiff slab below 10,500', then the snowpack becomes more noisy above. Lots of evidence of wind transport from the night of the 12th.

Avalanche

Generally poor visibility, but avalanche problems seemed spot on. Observed at least two D2 Persistent Slab avalanches that ran naturally, and numerous small Wind Slabs.