Gunnison
AvalancheEric Murrow · Apr 25, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Warm temperatures with partly cloudy skies. Light to calm winds at my near treeline location. cloud cover: scattered; wind loading: none; recent snowfall (cm): 0; snow avail for transport: none
Snowpack
I dug a single profile on a northeast-facing slope at 11,600 feet (adjacent to a profile I dug on 4/9) to investigate meltwater infiltration into the snowpack on northerly slopes at upper elevations. This location had meltwater reach the basal weak layers sometime in the past few days (see image). Multiple spots in the snowpack had pooled water with ice lenses, and meltwater was oozing into basal weak layers. Basal weak layers are well-rounded and moist, but still show a notable hardness change. Wet Slabs issue seems very unlikely at this elevation band at this point, given that meltwater reached weak snow near the ground, but I wouldn't completely rule it out. Melt grains at the surface of northerly terrain are large and easily drain water into the snowpack, so Wet Loose avalanche issues seem possible but not particularly problematic, and would likely remain small in size during peak heating. A handful of recent small Wet Loose avalanches on northerly slopes near and above treeline. I suspect these have been running since Wednesday, 3/23, but I'm uncertain of the exact day.
Avalanche
A handful of recent Loose avalanches at upper elevations on northerly slopes. Most appear to be Wet Loose from the past day or two. All remained small in size.