Gunnison

Snowpack

crested butte avalanche center · Mar 15, 2017 · Gunnison

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Weather

Clear sky, calm/light winds at ridgeline @ 9:00 increasing to strong NW by 10:30 T: Lo -6C @ TH @ 6:30 0C @ 9:00 @ 10,900

Snowpack

SNOWPACK/AVALANCHE OBS: W @ 10,900 ridgeline popped off a 4- 6” thick (Pencil hard) plywood sized wind slab overlying 10mm facets on a 20* slope wind whale N 10,000-10,900 alternating pencil hard windslab & cohesion less facet wallowing ~12” deep of impressive grain size. no other signs of instability, but our timing was early for the corn cycle so wouldn’t have seen anything. A few short wallow sections skiing up SE ~ 10:30 sheltered in open glades. Snow in general seemed shallow but dense E-S-W