Gunnison
AvalancheIan Havlick · Dec 24, 2013 · Gunnison
Weather
Mostly cloudy sky's and snowing S-1 then clearing in the afternoon. Light west winds were drifting snow at ridge line.
Snowpack
The recent storm snow is becoming more cohesive on lee and cross loaded NTL/BTL slopes over the last few days. In Coney's and yesterday on Schooks these slabs are still fist hard. On the lee slopes of Coney's today these soft slabs were about 40cm's just below the summit ridge. Large Whumpf just before ridge (far skier's right skin track along trees) where underlying windslab collapsed on skinners # 3,4,5 in close proximity after # 1&2 passed through. Ski pole handle probing all day found weak faceted snowpack 80-120cm deep and no strong layers until the buried windslab just before ridge line. moderate wind transport even in valley floor. Some trees are nearly bare of snow. JSJ's 2 day old skin track was nearly completely blown/filled in from W-N winds. Not slabby though, just slight sand dune texture & excellent ski quality.
Avalanche
Lucked out and watched a wind slap pull off the west side of Gothic. Big powder cloud too, sweet. Cross loaded west aspect, though the crown was more SW. Estimated the crown at 50cm-100cm and noted how you could see areas were the bed surface stepped down below the persistent slabs. Crown stretched from 11,400ft to 12,000ft on the cross loaded feature. SS-N-R3-D2.5-U.