Gunnison

Avalanche

Public Public · Feb 22, 2022 · Gunnison

Weather

Obscured sky, light snowfall.

Snowpack

By early afternoon there was about 25cm to 30cm of new snow onto of the old snow surface. The only notable results came from SE to E facing slopes where there was a collapsible crust. Otherwise, NE facing slopes felt just like a fresh storm slab avalanche problem and lacked any persistent slab avalanche characteristics with the current amount of new snot.

Avalanche

While traveling on a low angled slope above a steeper slope I remotely triggered a large avalanche. E to SE facing terrain feature below treeline. Google Earth measures the crown at over 1,500ft wide. The average crown height appeared to be about 25cm, and increased in some wind-loaded areas to an estimated 45 cm’s. This avalanche didn’t run very far into the avalanche path and was D2 or large in size. A crust collapsing into the weak facets below, appeared to drive the extended propagation given how little snow had currently accumulated. Numerous small soft slab avalanches had previously run on steep NE-facing slopes. I’d estimate that those slabs ran early this morning or last night.