Gunnison

Snowpack

John MacKinnon · Mar 7, 2013 · Gunnison

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Weather

Warm temps, strong solar, clear skies w/ high thin clouds passing intermittently, and moderate southwest winds. Winds increased as the day went on and I noticed some isolated plumes of snow blowing off Emmons and Scarp Ridge. Up-valley winds increased this afternoon as we skied out.

Snowpack

Tour up Wolverine Basin and skied Right Chute from the top of pt. 11, 388 down to OBJ. Top 5 cm of snpx becoming moist by 10 am. Got one collapse on a steeper SE roller below TL. Found cold dry snow on due north aspects from 11,400 down to about 10,000 ft. Heavier snow below 10K, but still good reasonable skiing. Observed a recent skier-triggered slab avalanche from a N/NE aspect near treeline. A skier skiing down the Redwell/Wolverine Ridge triggered a cross-loaded pocket near the apron of the ridge. SS-ASu-R2-D2-O. Crown heights looked to be between 50 and 75 cm. Slide broke about 100 meters wide and ran downhill about 150 meters. Looked like an area that had seen a lot previous wind-loading throughout the season. Observed several small (D1) loose wet slides from yesterday on a variety of sunny aspects below treeline.