Gunnison

Snowpack

Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Jan 24, 2011 · Gunnison

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Weather

Wx at 1500 Sky: Few, Winds:L-M NW, Blowsnow: Prev N, NW, Precip: NO, Airtemp: -7.5, Tsurf: -5.5, T20: -4.0 Sunny and crisp day with a few clouds and steady NW winds.

Snowpack

2 test pits on Snodgrass: South aspect revealed 104 cm of snow. Series of facets and crusts produced sudden collapses and drops during compression tests [CTM (SC) x2] on a 25 degree slope. Broke repeatedly on a facet layer down 35 cm. Recent storm snow has settled into 20 cm of 4F snow with a wind crust on top. On east aspect 170 cm of snow with 3 distinct buried surface hoar layers in top 60 cm of snowpack. Got fast, sudden and clean compression test results with moderate pressure [CTM (SP) x2] on layer down 35 cm and with hard pressure [CTH (SP) x1] on layer down 60 cm on a 25 degree slope. Shovel tilt tests revealed sudden planar shears on most recent buried surface hoar down 27 cm as well as a fast, clean break on DFs down 20cm.