Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett and Eric Murrow · Feb 1, 2023 · Gunnison
Weather
Strong inversions. Single digits in the valley bottom, high 20's above 11,000 feet. Calm winds in the basin. We saw no blowing snow.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces warmed and became moist in the top 1.5 inches. Shaded slopes below treeline held around a 20 inches of recent snow; the slab remains very soft outside of wind-affected areas and did not produce any cracking on a steep sheltered slope. On drifted near treeline features, we got get a small hunk of snow to break at the storm interface after significant stomping. It felt like there could be some drifted features capable of producing a large slab avalanche and a lesser chance for much smaller slabs in sheltered areas.
Avalanche
Warming temperatures above the valley inversions started a tiny cycle of wet avalanches on January 31st and February 1st.