Gunnison
Quick reportEvan Ross · Jan 18, 2026 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear sky, warm temps, calm wind. cloud cover: clear; wind loading: previous; recent snowfall (cm): 0; snow avail for transport: small smounts
Snowpack
Open areas BTL were a mix of thin hard slabs, windboard, raised tracks, soft wind dapples, and soft facets. Those hard snow surfaces were dictating how we traveled through the terrain, both from a ski quality and potential avalanche standpoint. They are sitting on soft facets that used to be the old snow surface before the prolonged northerly wind events this past week. The hardness of the slabs made them feel difficult to trigger, while the soft facets below made a suspect hardness change. Other than the hard snow surfaces, we didn't encounter any other snowpack structure that was concerning for a deeper persistent slab issue. The total snowpack depth is highly variable from steep slopes to low-angle slopes, as many of those steep slopes have seen previous avalanche activity this winter. . Traveling across some of the hard slabs and windboard produced cracking on the soft facets below.
Avalanche
No new slab avalanche activity observed.