Gunnison

Avalanche

Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Feb 27, 2018 · Gunnison

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Weather

Warm with high of +2C and calm winds. Upper elevations saw breezy conditions from the NW. Strong solar radiation took a toll on what was left of the dry snow. No précis but did notice a passing cloud or two.

Snowpack

Surfaces a mixed bag of dry snow, sun crusts from zipper to 2” from yesterday’s sun and warm temps. Appearance of RC faceted crystals over the crust. W-NW steeper slopes held dry snow this morning while S-SE crusts softened by noonish. Probing and Ski pole poking revealed variable depths up to 120 cms but mostly “junky” snow with many crust/facet layers. SE slopes visited blow treeline have very little snow with lots of rocks showing.

Avalanche

Fresh windslabs observed on E Face of Gothic (R1-D2) E Face of Baldy (R1-D2) sometime last night and persistent slab on NE slope 40 degrees @ 10,400’ toward Rustlers Gulch on a steep convex rollover. (SS-N-R1-D2-O) in a terrain trap. Approx 48 hours old. See photos attached.