Gunnison
SnowpackBo Torrey · Mar 6, 2021 · Gunnison
Weather
Cold temperature and mostly clear skies in the morning. Temperatures warmed into the high 30's through the day. High thin clouds moved in early afternoon.
Snowpack
Riding out of Pitkin the snow coverage is very thin. Higher up the snowpack starts to gain some depth and is about 100cm deep. The snowpack below treeline consists of a relatively thin 50cm F-1F slab that sits over weak F-4F facets and depth hoar. The riding was very unsupportive off of the road. Higher up near treeline the snowpack was more supportive but variable. You would be riding along and suddenly encounter a thinner unsupportive part of the snowpack and the snowmobile would sink. Southerly facing slope near and below treeline had heavy wet surface snow. On uupper elevation slopes above treeline there was evidence of old avalanches and recent cornice fall but not recent activity. Northerly facing slopes had 3-5 inches of recent snow above a We did observe 1 or 2 recent Wet Loose avalanches in steep east southeast facing terrain and some old crowns higher up above treeline on an east northeast facing bowl. The large persistent slab avalanche off of Green Mountain likely occurred in mid February during one of the natural cycles. Overall the snowpack resembles a similar structure to the Sawatch and "thinner" snowpack areas of the Gunnison zone.