Gunnison
AvalancheCrested Butte Avalanche Center · Jan 8, 2014 · Gunnison
Snowpack
a lot of cracking and settlements while skinning wind protected north facing slopes one kick turn propagated about 6-7 feet and fell out onto lower track, 12-14 inches deep. South facing slopes seemed to be a lot more supportive, we dropped multiple small cornices on S slopes between 32-40 degrees with out much result, one drop triggered a small R1-D1 loose snow avalanche into treed terrain, we also had one long 40-50 foot shooting crack come from a ski cut w/o release even after repeating, 36 degree slope. South facing slopes were void of solar crusts all day, and held much less wind stiffened snow than we had expected.
Avalanche
Triggered two small sluffs running slow for about 70-120ft in loose sugary east facing snow at around 9,450ft. Also, a large R3-D3ish avalanche on the SW flank of Baldy occurred sometime midday, there were ballsy snow-mo high marks on the same mountain, same aspect, just further east, possible remote trigger?