Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross Zach Guy · Mar 13, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
Storm totals since yesterday were about 10cm at 11,000ft, while at valley elevations the snow snow was blending in with the old wet snow below. Snowfall was on and off, with a few periods of heavy snowfall. Light to moderate winds above 11,000ft. Overcast cloud cover.
Snowpack
On SW slopes, the crusts under the new snow were strong and supportable. That crust became a bit variable in distribution on west aspects but was still generally supportable and around 2-3cm thick. That crust tapered out as you turned more NW. We traveled through an area with a variable snowpack height and around 130cm HS or less. In some cases, the snowpack was weak and lacked a slab, while other areas had old wind-hardened slabs. We observed one collapse in the area, and we could hear it rumble off into the distance. We didn't observe any other obvious signs of instability on this tour. A test pit at on a northerly facing slope around 11,000ft, produced an ECTN hard result on the 2/2 SH. The 2/2 surface hoar in this pit was still over 1cm in size, but leaning over and getting filled in with other snow grains. The layer of concern through most of the tour was the early January faceted interface given the shallow snow depths.
Avalanche
Previously undocumented, likely failed during 3/3-3/4 storm.