Gunnison

Snowpack

Pretty calm between 9 - 12. Snowing really strong as of noon on 1/21. Maybe inch+ / hour. No wind before noon. Pit profile: 33 - 34 degrees in E/NE treed terrain. Not pretty. 70 cm facets, about 40 cm of new storm snow since Monday, probably MLK squalls, about 105-110 cm overall snow pack.. In the pit......Penetration of 4F and F was variable the whole way up to the new snow. Old facets (the base) has a non-uniform layer from the ground up. The depth of the facets is not uniform - between 50 - 80 cm. Compression test in this pit yielded surprising results at about CT20ish w clean shear. We saw a lot of movement in the new snow / old snow interface when one of our members jumped on the pit. 10 cm new snow is on top of top of a rain/temperature crust. Snowing hard when we left. Skiing. Crust broke with each turn on steeper terrain. Crust held on very low angle terrain. Crust could be a dangerous phenomenon, in addition to the buried deep facets. Didn't see a 'midpack.' The crust could be a really good bed surface for new snow.