Gunnison
SnowpackSteve Banks · Nov 27, 2011 · Gunnison
Weather
Warm and surprisingly windy with clear skies and temps near freezing. Morning winds aloft were from the N-NE, moving to the N-NW by afternoon. Some snow transport was visible on the ridge tops loading S-SW slopes in the morning and E slopes midday
Snowpack
Snowpack was variable. Below TL on E-SE slopes the snow cover was thin, 1-1.5' with a thin wind crust on the surface. On NE slopes there was a wind slab in some areas up to 8" thick. Higher up, near TL on N-Ne slopes there was over a meter of snow. A quick pit on a NE slope at 11,00' showed HS 135cm with 35cm of 4F facets on the ground, 1F hard old wind slab above, 4F-fist to the surface. Skiing produced no cracking or collapsing. A few small pockets appeared to have run during the small snow/wind event on Friday on steep NE-E facing slopes. All were R1-D-1