Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Jan 2, 2020 · Gunnison
Weather
Light northwest orographics. Scattered to Broken skies, cool temps, light winds. Clouds enshrouded the peaks, but pretty good visibility near treeline.
Snowpack
About a foot of fresh snow that generally bonded well to the old snow surface. The worst upper snowpack structure was on southerly aspects, where the storm snow sat on a thin and friable crust with small facets below. We triggered a few small soft (almost slab) avalanches that broke below the crust. On these same sunny aspects, cornice drops triggered avalanches that broke within the storm snow, not stepping down below the crusts. Near treeline, there was plenty of evidence of light and sustained drifing, but we found no reactive wind slab development. Drifted snow was 4F to 4f- in hardness. Natural activity on these aspects was all within the storm snow, mostly running as Loose Dry avalanches. On the northerly slopes without the thin crust and facet combination, we pushed the new snow into loose dry avalanches, but saw no activity below the storm interface.
Avalanche
Numerous small avalanches. Mostly Loose Dry, with a few shallow soft slabs breaking within the storm snow.