Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross · Nov 5, 2018 · Gunnison
Weather
Broken sky and generally protected from any wind.
Snowpack
Snowpack depth was sharky to 70cm on average, depending on elevation and a slopes exposed to previous wind events. The deepest and most suspect snowpack would have been on the true north facing slopes above 11,400ft. Winds associated with 11/4 had raked or pressed a lot of those more northerly slopes and loaded the more northeasterly slopes in this area. Observed new snow drifts up to 40cm, but the 11/4 storm probably brought in around 15-18cm's HST at the upper elevations we were traveling in. The new snow felt slabby from the wind and sitting on junk that you could type another paragraph about. Outside of observing a good sized natural avalanche, we observed one large collapse that sent shooting cracks for 100-200' on the deepest part of a slope, the shaded, most northerly facing, and further not stripped by recent winds... part of that slope. The slope angle at the cracks were at or above 40 degrees. The cracks didn't appear to continue into the more northeasterly part of this slope.
Avalanche
Observed one good natural slab that ran about 2,000 feet. The slab didn't necessarily look that large, but the avalanche path holds a steep enough slope angle that allowed the debris to keep running and accumulating snow along the way. This avalanche probably started as a wind slab or cornice fall at ridgline around 12,600ft. Then those debris popped an estimated 200' wide persistent slab just below a large cliff band that all continued on down for the rest of its journey.