Gunnison

Avalanche

Eric Murrow · Apr 3, 2019 · Gunnison

View on map

Weather

Cloudy skies with periods of snow, heavy at times. New snow accumulations at 12,000 feet, 1pm was 4 inches. Winds were lighter than expected, under 15mph while in open terrain at 12k. Visibility was limited but hung out for 30 minutes in open ATL terrain and observed almost no transport.

Snowpack

Visibility was too poor to venture into terrain with possible Wind Slab development. Skiing in steep NTL protected terrain produced fast moving shallow sloughs. Sloughs were able to entrain just a small amount of old snow at NTL elevation. Snow surface remained dry on northerly slopes down to about 10,400′ before becoming moist.

Avalanche

Observed several natural, tree bomb triggered, dry loose in steep terrain. Skier triggered numerous dry loose in steep, NTL terrain.