Gunnison
AvalancheZach Guy · Mar 7, 2014 · Gunnison
Weather
Calm winds this morning under moderate snowfall (S1 to S2). Winds increased this afternoon from the north and northwest, with moderate gusts and moderate snow transport, and snowfall easing to very light (S-1). Overcast all day under a cooling trend.
Snowpack
3†overnight (.15†SWE) and 3†today (.2†SWE). 3-5†moderate density snow around our terrain showed no signs of instability this morning. Spike in winds around 1300 caused snow to quickly become slabby above treeline under north loading patterns. Snow profile on a WSW aspect above treeline, in an area that is shallow and scoured through most of the winter, showed a 90cm 1Finger slab from February storms over 4 mm rounding depth hoar grains, Fist+ in hardness. Repeated sudden collapse propagation results from PST and ECT (but required additional hard-swinging loading steps in ECT). See profile.
Avalanche
Skier triggered numerous soft slabs in the Upper Upper Westwall, 3-12†deep, 10-30’ wide, very touchy underfoot, sliding on yesterdays refrozen or wind-firmed interfaces. Most were short-running, but a couple ran 600 to 800 feet. All harmless in size, but one knocked a skier over. (SS-ASc-R1-D1-I)