Gunnison

Snowpack

Tour to Mt. Axtel: Got several minor collapses while putting a skin track in an area that has seen little traffic this year. Snowpack was mostly shallow in trees with HS averaging less than meter. At treeline, winds were light to moderate from the west southwest with no blowing snow. A small surface hoar layer was preserved on north aspects near treeline and there was evidence that past east and northeast winds had been moving some snow. Skied steep terrain with no signs of instabilities but did get lots of high-speed sluffing. However,our line of descent off the ridge had already slid, so snowpack was very shallow and rocky with no slab present for first 200 feet. Further into the bowl, snowpack was deeper and supportive but still felt variable. Half-way down, previous winds had cross-loaded pockets and scoured west-facing features.