Gunnison
AvalancheSam Roberts · Dec 3, 2019 · Gunnison
Weather
The day started as mostly overcast with a few flakes flying and a slight wind coming in from the west. As we skinned the clouds began to break and the wind remained with the occasional gust up to about 10mph. The decrease of cloud coverage saw an increase in sunlight and the temperature rose quickly from around -5 degrees C to about +1 degrees C by noon.
Snowpack
The pit was just as we expected from the skin up, shallow. The snow in the glades ranged from 25-45 cm total in a E-SE-S facing gully at 11284'. There were 2 distinct layer, the first being the last storm snow that consisted of rounded grains of fist hardness (with the basal 2-3cm developing into facets) ranging from 20-40cm below a 2-4cm thick sun crust. Above the sun crust was 3-5cm of fresh snow that had been blown in by the wind. No test were conducted, the only reactivity I saw was the 2cm sun crust cracking and sliding on top of the storm snow. This quickly degrading new snow under that sun crust could cause problems whenever this area gets more snow. VERY THIN and would not recommend until there is more snow.
Avalanche
none