Gunnison
SnowpackZach Guy · Feb 16, 2013 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear all day. Temps rose to 20°F at 12,000 ft, and 31°F at 10,000 ft. Ridgetop winds were light gusting to moderate and strong from the W and NW.
Snowpack
Snowpack: Snow surfaces were moist to wet on southeast to southwest aspects below treeline and wind affected on all aspects and elevations, especially higher. On West aspects above treeline, we observed mostly discontinuous shallow slabs or soft sastrugi snow, except in a crossloaded feature which was holding a 1' to 2' slab (4F hard) over the old interface. SE aspects above treeline have 1' slab over the Feb 7th meltfreeze crust interface. Avalanches: Observed about 10 natural avalanches on south, southeast, and east aspects above treeline on Ruby, Owen, and Purple Mtn, all shallow windslabs failing either within the storm snow or at the storm interface. Most were D1's, but a couple D1.5's on a SE and E and one D2 on the east face of Owen which ran 2000 ft. Also numerous small point releases near cliffs. On our terrain, we had 3 naturals occur overnight, D1.5's. on SW and SE aspects above treeline (SS-N-R2D1.5-I), as well as 2 skier triggered on SE aspects above treeline (SS-ASc-R1-D1/1.5-I) failing 8-12" deep on Feb 7 MFcr.