Gunnison

Avalanche

Zach Guy (Mt Emmons, East River) · Feb 20, 2024 · Gunnison

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Snowpack

Stability tests on an east aspect at 10,200 near Happy Chutes produced easy propagating results about 20" deep under a 4F slab (ECTP1 and ECTP4). The surface hoar layer here is about 1 cm thick. The crowns of the triggered avalanches on East River failed on a mix of 6 to 8 mm surface hoar nested in 2mm near surface facets (2/2 layer), fist hard.

Avalanche

I ski cut three persistent slabs on northeast aspects above East River. Slabs are about 20" thick, two of the avalanches ran 500' to the valley floor and were large (D2). The East River area had numerous natural D1 to D2 persistent slabs, likely from last week's storm. Two of them stepped down to the ground below hard slabs, about 3 feet thick.