Gunnison
Quick reportEric Murrow · Feb 28, 2026 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear morning with thin, high clouds developing in the early afternoon. Warm temperatures and light wind. cloud cover: few
Snowpack
While traversing across the north side of Snodgrass, I didn't experience any signs of instability (almost no traffic in this area since last week's storm). Between 10-11,000 feet the slab is typically around 20 inches thick (mostly 1 finger hard) with a melt/freeze/rain crust at the surface. The weak layer remains notably softer than the slab above, but shows some signs of rounding under the loop. A test profile at 10,600 feet produced moderate propagating results on a northeast aspect. The unusually dense slab prevents signs of instability, but the structure remains poor and creates the opportunity for a surprise, large avalanche. I briefly touched some southerly terrain below treeline and found 2-3 inches of wet snow above a supportive snowpack. Wet Loose problems seem to be few and small with this structure. I dropped below Gothic Road to investigate lower elevation northerly slopes and make sense of Wednesday's rain event. The first feature I headed to failed naturally during the rain event. While digging into the hangfire, I found two ice lenses in the middle of the slab and couldn't track meltwater below. The large-grained facets at the bottom of the snowpack where the avalanche failed were moist, but I don't believe meltwater drained through. No signs of instability underfoot.
Avalanche
I observered one fresh Wet Loose avalanche and documented an old, Persistent Slab that likely failed during Wednesday's rain event.