Gunnison
AvalancheCBAC Forecaster · Nov 19, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
West winds increased a bit throughout the morning, with periods of blowing snow at ridgetop and along valley floor from moderate wind speeds. Light (S1) snowfall this morning.
Snowpack
In wind sheltered terrain on northerly aspects, ski pen is to the ground (12" to 20") through a weak, faceted snowpack (fist hard, 1-1.5 mm facets) below the top 5" of new, low density snow. On east facing terrain, the storm interface is a collapsible crust (1cm thick, 4F+) above faceted snow. Still a fair amount of ground/vegetation roughness in this area. The storm interface is fragile enough that wind sheltered areas with higher snow totals may have thin storm slab issues; I was already starting to see little cracks in the storm snow under just 5".
Avalanche
Poor vis. On a small, steep test slope, I ski cut one loose dry sluff that entrained the entire weak snowpack to the ground.