Gunnison
SnowpackZach Guy · Jan 14, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
Heavy snowfall, periods of S5. No wind below treeline. Low density snow.
Snowpack
Unique and touchy conditions. Slabs are about 2' thick; they will easily bury you in bigger terrain features now. The most unusual characteristic of today was how much activity we saw in gladed terrain; lots of natural persistent slabs ran today in small openings in the trees, and we got many collapses in the trees. I don't see that often in this area. The slides in the trees were all D1s because they were in small terrain features, but enough to push you into a tree or tree well. Of the three relatively small avalanche paths we got views of, all three had produced avalanches today, either D1 storm slabs or one produced a D2 persistent slab. Every terrain feature collapsed and cracked. The collapses were about 2 ft deep on our January weak layer (persistent slab problem). The cracking occurred in both the persistent slab and in a new storm slab problem about 8" to 10" deep.