Gunnison

Snowpack

Tour beyond the ski area boundary in areas that have seen little traffic and no control work showed some interesting results. At 10 am we entered a slide path at 11,600 on a NE aspect. Test profile showed 2 layers of decomposing surface hoar about 50cm below the surface. With this concern we place 2 2# explosives on the slope where it rolls over to 37 degrees and released a large HS-AE-R4-D2.5-O which was 400 ft wide and ran 600 vertical on old faceted snow with a crown up to 130cm. As we continued to lower elevations we wrapped around to an E facing slope at 10,700' where the surface snow was becoming moist, but water was not penetrating below a sun crust 8cm beneath. Below 10,000'and the E aspect we encountered a 37 degree slope which had avalanche previously with impressive propagation. The slide was nearly half a mile wide running along slopes below a prominent bench. It likely ran around Feb 26 when the ski area received 13" of snow. The SS-N(?)-R4-D2.5-O also ran on the same layer of old facets with a crown height of 2-3 feet. In some areas it had stepped down to the ground. Throughout the day temps we above freezing with very little wind and strong solar radiation. Only flat terrain on the North side of the mt. stayed dry.