Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Dec 28, 2018 · Gunnison

Weather

Cool partly cloudy morning turned colder and showery in the afternoon.

Snowpack

Generally very weak snowpack in the Cement Creek area drainage. Below 9,000' barely enough snow to cover sagebrush. Snowpack gets deeper around the Deadman's narrows, with ~40-60cm around 10,000'. By 11,000' the snowpack grows to around 80cm and over 100cm in sheltered near-treeline terrain. On west and northwest aspects below and near treeline, we found a snowpack structure capable of producing Persistent Slab avalanches on slopes with more than about 90cm, and on any slopes with prior drifted snow. Above treeline west were thinner and more variable.

Avalanche

Many recent avalanches, all small slabs.