Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Jan 17, 2023 · Gunnison

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Observation photo 1

Weather

Snowing up to an 1 inch per hour (~S2) with no wind. Temperatures in the low 20's. Poor visibility until skies turned mostly cloudy around mid-day and snowfall lightened.

Snowpack

The snowpack is around 230-250 deep in this area. We experienced dxceptionally deep snowmobile and boot penetration. We would sink past our waist with a gentle step, or to our chests with a jump.
The recent storm snow rests right-side-up, with a little dense meringue of stiffer decomposed grains atop graupel below the snow of the last two days. We could not get an ECT to propagate at this interface.
Overall, the snowpack in

Avalanche

None observed in Washington Gulch, the south side of Mt. Baldy, or the south, west, or northwest sides of Gothic Mountain.