Gunnison

Snowpack

John MacKinnon · Dec 16, 2012 · Gunnison

Weather

Obscured skies, light snow and light westerly winds with some stronger gusts in the afternoon. I did observe intermittent light blowing snow in the morning that became more consistent as the day went on. A thin wind crust was forming in exposed areas below treeline. Temperatures remained cool all day with an observed air temp. of -10 C at 1 pm at 10,700 ft.

Snowpack

Snodgrass Mountain on SE, E and NE aspects from 9600 feet to 10,700 feet. HS ranged from 30 cm to over 65 cm with around 8 cm of new snow from the last 24 hours. As I moved up in elevation and switched to shadier aspects the snowpack got deeper and punchier with distinct strong over weak layering in the bottom 1/3 of the snowpack. I was able to find the Dec. 2nd buried facet layer at the bottom of the snowpack pretty consistently on most slopes above 10,200 feet that face NE and E. On the descent I heard a rumbling collapse as I skied across a small 35 degree roll on an east aspect. The whole slope cracked but didn't slide. Cracks propagated over 10 meters to either side of me and downslope for about 15 meters