Gunnison

Snowpack

John MacKinnon · Dec 27, 2012 · Gunnison

Weather

Cold temps that never got out of the single digits. Overcast to obscured skies with light to moderate snow all day long. Ridgetop winds were transporting snow onto the N and NE side of Axtell for most of the day.

Snowpack

Observed a natural avalanche that seemed to have occurred in the last 24 hours on a NE aspect NTL. A small pocket slid below the ridgetop in a wind-loaded area--SS-N-R1-D2-I. Crown height of 18" and broke about 40 feet across the top of 4th Bowl. Hard to get good stats in the flat light and I couldn't see how far down in ran. My guess is it broke on the Dec. 23rd SH and NSF layer. Winds had pressed and drifted the snow into dense powder on west aspects near and below treeline. This week's storm snow felt heavy and slabby. Observed 30 cm of new snow since Monday. HS averaged 120 cm on west aspects NTL and the bottom 30 cm had that familiar punch of the Dec. 3rd DH. In many areas ski penetration was over 60 cm. We also noticed localized collapsing in treed areas on northerly aspects on both our ascent and descent. There was also some riming on the windward sides of trees.