Gunnison
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Feb 5, 2023 · Gunnison
Weather
Warm day around 22F at the trailhead around 8:00 warming up to 36F by 11:00. Moderate winds and Strong gusts transporting snow along ridgelines.
Snowpack
The new snow from January 27 has settled and been blown by wind into two to four foot thick slabs of 4F hard (on the hand hardness scale) snow resting on top of a thin layer of small (.5 to 1mm) faceted crystals and melt-freeze crust/facet combinations. These buried weak layers are proving to be unproblematic in this area with snowpack tests getting non-propagating failures or no failures at all on all aspects except for southeast near the treeline where an extended column test did get a propagating failure with additional loading steps. This weak interface is not entirely out of play yet but it most likely will be within a couple days.
Avalanche
Observed old avalanches that have already been coded. No new avalanche activity since January 31.