Gunnison

Snowpack

Ben Pritchett · Jan 18, 2022 · Gunnison

Weather

Increasing and decreasing sky. Anything from clear to overcast throughout the day. Clam wind.

Snowpack

This tour didn’t encounter a moment where it felt like there was a chance of triggering a slab avalanche. Small sluffs on steep northerly slopes were about it. Managing regrouping areas for the very unlikely chance of triggering a large to very large avalanche seemed to be the best travel advice. West and NW aspects at NTL elevations had the most dramatic changes from trigger points to a deeper snowpack. Otherwise, we didn’t find ourselves managing trigger point travel advice. Other aspects are either, deep, blown off, or non-problematic. On a northerly facing slope NTL the snow surface consisted of .5mm or smaller NSF. The snowpack is still supportive to boots NTL/BLT elevations and you can actually take both skis off at once without sinking deeply, which isn’t typical for our snowpack this time of year.