Gunnison

Snowpack

Eric Murrow · Mar 31, 2025 · Gunnison

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Weather

About 6 dense inches since Friday 3/29. cloud cover: overcast; wind loading: light; recent snowfall (cm): 16 ; snow avail for transport: small smounts

Snowpack

I toured mainly on northerly aspects with a brief look at south along the ridge top.  Above about 10,000 feet in this area, 3 to 6 inches of dry snow are resting above last week's meltdown crust, even on southerly slopes.  I suspect some southerly slopes were cooked in other places depending on cloud cover over the past few days.  Crusts are generally frozen underneath the new snow, but I did find a few moist, soft crusts below treeline on east.  I traveled up to 11,400 feet and found thin, soft crusts below the recent snow on due north slopes.  I found no significant faceting at the crust interface or current snow surface.  In the terrain I traveled, avalanche problems will likely involve just the incoming storm snow with a very low likelihood of avalanches stepping down or breaking deeper in the snowpack; however, well-drifted slopes at upper elevations could be a different story.