Gunnison
AvalancheEric Murrow and Ben Pritchett · Jan 15, 2019 · Gunnison
Weather
Partly cloudy skies to start turning mostly cloud skies with very light snow around 2pm.
Snowpack
This area several miles to the west of Kebler Pass on E and N aspects had average snowpack depth around 90-125cm, with one NNW location up to 145cm. Snow depths in this area were less than the Kebler Pass area and more than the far eastern areas like Brush or Cement Creek, closer match to the middle portion of the Gunnison zone like the lower Slate River corridor or Washington Gulch. Several test profiles were performed on SE, NE, and NNW locations. ECT scores showed hard or no result. Inspecting a pair of suspected snowbike triggered avalanches on adjacent southeast-facing slopes, they released on the Thanksgiving interface. Based on test results at several sites on northeast and north-northwest-facing slopes, the layer of concern would be the 12/22 or Holiday interface or the lower of a stack of surface hoar layers buried in late December.
Avalanche
We observed a pari of snowbike triggered slides on small drifted SE slopes below treeline, D1 in size. We also saw two other southeast-facing naturals in the below treeline area on southeast side of East Beckwith, D1. Two natural D1.5 on steep east-facing slopes below treeline. Two small D1's on north aspect of Mt. Axtel below cliff bands in 3rd bowl.