Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Nov 30, 2019 · Gunnison

Weather

Biting cold. Orographic showers from strong northwest winds. Remained overcast until 3pm when skies moved towards broken.

Snowpack

Rumbling collapses on any slopes with old snow. Difficult to judge how much new snow fell after Friday night's shifting strong winds, but I would estimate ~15".

Avalanche

We chose to ski a lower angled line adjacent to a small east-facing avalanche path. We discussed our terrain boundaries on the slope so we would not get caught if the significantly steeper adjacent slope did release. On my partner's second turn, we felt a large collapse and the adjacent path released remotely, about 100' away. The avalanche broke on a layer of old faceted snow. I skied down towards the crown, releasing a bit of hangfire to investigate the crown. On our return back up from Rock Creek, a profile on a similar but lower-angled east-facing slope showed ~60 cm of recent snow above the facets at the bottom of the snowpack. We got an ECTN 19, where the slab fractured rather than propagating across the weak layer.