Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Feb 29, 2020 · Gunnison

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Weather

Felt hot. Rapid warm up between 8-9am. Cloud cover wasn't thick enough to temper temperatures. Winds picked up mid-day, keeping windward snow surfaces cooler (crustier) than expected.

Snowpack

~10am, we triggered one rumbling collapse with long-running shooting cracks on a sunny east-facing slope at 10,300'. The slope was around 35 degrees where it collapsed. The slope steepened into the base of a cliff above about 40 feet away, and the slope angle lessened to around 30 degrees below us. The collapse occurred in a layer of fist-hard facets below a crust about 40cm from the snow surface. The snow surface moist, just becoming wet in a few spots. We were heading to shady north-facing snow, and for the rest of the day observed no more signs of instability other than facet sluffing in very steep wind-scoured shallow spots.

Avalanche

A bit more Loose Wet avalanching today than yesterday. Size remained small, though we observed one natural that ran several hundred feet (D1.5).