Gunnison

Avalanche

Zach Guy · Apr 16, 2023 · Gunnison

Weather

Light ridgetop winds, minor transport. Clear skies. Springlike temps.

Snowpack

Settled storm snow depths ranged from 4″ to 8″, notably redistributed by wind in this area. Targeted a few windloaded test slopes and could only get localized cracking with no releases, until we got one wind slab to pop later in the day in a steep chute. Drifts were up to 2 feet thick below large fetches, but the cracking was occurring on a mid-storm layer about 6″ to 8″ deep. Mid to high northerlies stayed dry, with wet loose activity beginning mid-morning on easterlies. The 4/14 interface stayed frozen and supportive to ski pen through midday.

Avalanche

Numerous small wet loose avalanches ran at all elevations, predominantly on east and southeast aspects this morning (D1s). A few reached around to NE aspects BTL. These all ran on the dust/crust layer. We skier-triggered a couple of similar avalanches and observed other skier-triggered slides as well. Skier triggered one hot wind slab that entrained wet loose snow on a crossloaded gulley below treeline (D1).