Gunnison

Snowpack

Anonymous · Jan 10, 2012 · Gunnison

Weather

Wx - Clear, temps were warm, felt like spring, Winds - calm

Snowpack

Avi. acitivity - R2 - D2 - AS - SS - I/0. Noone caught in slide, but not an intentional release. Crown 8-16". Large Convex feature in bowl, cross and lee loaded. Bedsurface varied from wind slab and MF crust at top and stepped down into older snow layers in different areas of the bed surface. Slide was 75-100' wide ran about 800'. Triggered this slide first turn onto 35-38 degree slope, the slope collapsed and a crack ran from the tail of my skis about 20' away to the crown. We did feel a collapse on the ridge skinning up and figured the slope could be touchy... also on skin up ridge my track was about 10' above where the crown would be. The slope had obvious signs of wind effect throughout. Lower terrain, 10,000 ft and below, was not supportable, breaking through new snow to facets. No signs of instability below treeline on E and NE aspects SE aspects were warming and becoming moist.