Gunnison

Avalanche

Zach Guy · Mar 13, 2022 · Gunnison

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Weather

Warm and sunny most of the day. Clouds quickly increased to overcast from 3 to 4 p.m. Moderate ridgetop winds this afternoon were starting to drift snow.

Snowpack

Still getting fairly consistent shooting cracks and remotely triggered mini slabs in creek beds below treeline on untrammeled shady aspects. Signs of instability diminished as I got higher in elevation, although I did get easy propagating results under a 2 foot slab on the Double Top Ridgeline (NE aspect, 11,600?). These instabilities are all on the sandbox layer, 18? to 24? deep, on average fist to fist+ hard and 2mm in size. Tried snowmobile cutting several hard wind slabs above treeline on small, supported features and the only result was me getting bucked off the sled.

Avalanche

More small wet loose activity today at all elevations, southern half of the compass. A few fresh cornice falls on Double Top to D1.5. A handful of small to large wind slabs that probably ran Friday above treeline. One deeper and fresher looking slab avalanche on a SE facing slope above treeline on Gothic Peak that ran sometime in the past few days.