Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross · Mar 8, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Clear sky, becoming partly cloudy for a period in the afternoon. Calm wind becoming light from the north and transporting some snow in the afternoon. cloud cover: clear
Snowpack
No obvious signs of instability were observed while sledding around on test slopes or while skiing on Owen. Recent wind-loading patterns were more pressed into terrain featuers, and convex wind-loaded terrain was more isolated. The fairy dust that was sitting on Mt Axtell yesterday was nowhere to be seen in this area. Snow surfaces were comparatively thicker, but they still skied and rode well. Sunny slopes had surface crusts in the morning, and steep southerly facing slopes appeared to warm up today with new roller balls and some wet loose avalanche activity. A cool breeze picked up in the afternoon. East at 11,200ft on a 30-degree slope. HS 230cm. The 3/3 interface was down 60cm, and the slab was bonded well to the crust. The crust was about 3-4cm thick and had a thin layer of small facets directly below, but it didn't look particularly collapsable into P hard snow. North at 11,850 on a 28-degree slope. HS 200cm. The 3/3 interface was down 70cm and made up of .5 rounding faceted grains. A small collom compression test produced a hard, resistant planner result. The layer of concern would have been the large 3mm facets near the bottom of the snowpack. .
Avalanche
Some small wet loose avalanches and roller balls up to 12,000ft on southerly slopes. Initiating from rock outcrops.