Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Nov 22, 2018 · Gunnison

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Weather

Approaching storm day. First flakes arrived a bit early, at 11am. By noon cloud ceilings lowered and it was snowing lightly under obscured skies with increasing southwest winds.

Snowpack

Highly variable. Generally weak surfaces. Generally we found 60cm of snow in the area, which is a little more than what's shown on the Schofield snotel snow height sensor. Ski penetration varied from near full depth in sheltered areas that had completely faceted, to only a few cm when on top of old drifts highlighted as the problem areas in recent advisories.

Avalanche

We saw one small slab avalanche very near some recent ski tracks in Mt. Baldy's Emerald Lake bowl that faces northeast. Not sure if the avalanche was related. We triggered one small slab avalanche just at ridge crest on the side of Mt. Baldy's Halloween Bowl that faces to the northwest.