Gunnison
SnowpackIan Havlick · Dec 12, 2012 · Gunnison
Weather
Day remained cold despite patchy sun and partial clearing around sunset. Winds were generally light from the west, with a few stronger gusts at times. Throughout the morning light snow continued, becoming more scattered flurries by mid afternoon. Additional day accumulation was 1/4in on the H2D board, leaving around 7.5†snow from last nights storm.
Snowpack
New 8†paint job really did wonders for skiability if nothing else.. Structure remains highly variable between good structure (new snow on dirt), to poor structure in areas that held old snow (shady trees, W,NW, N protected mirco terrain). Trailbreaking (aka ski pen) was really not bad, supportable with fat skis. HS varied between 5-85cm, and wind continued to drift snow into firm (1F-P-) windslabs, and snow whales. Dug 2 pits on planar slope within 4m of each other with drastic differences with instability tests. Pit #1 held a 4-5cm melt-freeze crust below the new storm snow, pit #2 in a slightly more shaded location held similar depth, but with 30cm of bottomless sugar. Pit #1 did not produce any CT or ECT results. Pit #2 had very easy Q1 scores (CT3 Q1, CT4 Q1, ECTP16 Q1) Any steeper slopes which have any suspicion of holding snow prior to this storm cycle remain guilty until proven innocent.