Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross · Feb 23, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear sky, with clouds begining to increase in the later afternoon. Light to moderate wind above 11,300ft.
Snowpack
Where we traveled, the snowpack was deep and showed no obvious signs of instability. The snowpack didn't feel punchy when probing. A few potential suspect slopes we traveled through had already avalanched during the Valentine storm. Around 10,200ft on moderately angled SE to E facing slopes heading up to Purple Ridge, just the top couple inches of snow was moist. The snowpack in this terrain was dense, and there wasn't a wet loose avalanche problem. The other areas that had wet loose avalanche activity or roller balls, mostly had some type of rock outcrop above a steep slope. The easterly facing bowl off of Purple Ridge was worked over by both recent winds and the warm temperatures. Creating a variety of crust and wind boards. The few inches of snow that had accumulated on Thursday night and into Friday, was long gone. The Purple Palace had surface crusts on the easterly tilted slopes, while the more NE-facing slopes had soft powder with a ski pen around 4 to 5 inches deep. .
Avalanche
There were a few more roller balls and small, wet loose avalanches, but this activity appeared to be far less than yesterday. The wind helped keep snow surfaces cooler at upper elevations.