Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross · Mar 1, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear sky, warm temps, light winds. cloud cover: clear
Snowpack
I targeted a few slopes that I suspected would be notable for persistent slab results and tried to avoid travel on sunny slopes that were hot and punchy. On W to N to E slopes in Cement Creek between 10,000ft and 12,000ft, the average slab depth varied between 40cm and 60cm on average. Of course, thicker slabs existed on wind-loaded terrain. Where the slab was average in depth, it was often supportable to boots but took little effort to punch through into the large facets below. Don't take your skis off or hop off your sled because it could be a willowy mess. A test profile at 12,000ft on a low angle NE facing slope with an HS of 118cm produced an ECTP 12 SC on large-grained facets. Yet, I couldn't initiate a collapse or produce shooting cracks while traveling near the area in a similar snowpack. The bottom line is that the snowpack structure was ugly but it had notably quieted down. Similar conditions were observed on another suspect terrain feature around 11,300ft. On my way out at the end of the day, I grabbed two quick observations on a west and an east-facing slope at 10,000ft. Both slopes had a low slope angle of around 25 degrees and an HS of around 70cm. In both cases, water had formed an ice lens about 5cm above the 2/8 crust and had not wetted the large facets below. A steeper slope angle may have been more interesting. . A few shooting cracks and collapses were limited to the valley bottom. Otherwise, obvious signs of instability were not observed.
Avalanche
No notable recent avalanche observations on this outing. Plenty of old slabs are still visible from the Cupid Crusher and later wind events.