Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett and Eric Murrow · Jan 14, 2020 · Gunnison

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Weather

Cold start with a rapid warm up to near freezing. Breezy southwest winds transported snow all day.

Snowpack

We dug on a south-facing slope below treeline. We found 140cm of snow, that was right-side up. Near the ground the snowpack was pencil hard becoming less-stiff towards the surface. There were two buried crusts, both with facets above and below. The upper crust (New Years) is a concern where more load rests on top. We found 1.3" of SWE in the recent storm snow sitting on the crust and got ECTP13, breaking on 1.5mm facets below the crust. We got no results on the facets above or below the lower (Pre-Xmas) crust / facet combo.

Avalanche

Numerous natural avalnaches. Some appeared to run during Monday's storm event, others ran during the day on Tuesday. Some broke only in the new snow, others stepped down a layer or two deeper on buried persistent weak layers.