Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Feb 3, 2023 · Gunnison
Snowpack
The snowpack in this area is around three to three and a half feet deep (90-110cm). The bottom foot of the snowpack is large-grained depth hoar, formed in November. The slab on top is supportive on skis, but inconsistently supportive standing in boots.
A crown profile near the trigger point showed a snowpack of right at three feet deep. Snowpack tests produced hard, sudden, propagating results (ECTP 23, popping like a cash register drawer).
I could feel the weak layer near the ground at the bottom of the north chute, but a few hundred feet up, the snowpack changed, feeling much, much more supportive, once I hit an area of old avalanche debris. There was no obvious visible change, but the snowpack was close to 200cm deep, and very stiff below the January storm snow. Another portion of this complex avalanche path released during the holiday storm period, filling the main track with debris down to around 9,700 feet.
A crown profile near the trigger point showed a snowpack of right at three feet deep. Snowpack tests produced hard, sudden, propagating results (ECTP 23, popping like a cash register drawer).
I could feel the weak layer near the ground at the bottom of the north chute, but a few hundred feet up, the snowpack changed, feeling much, much more supportive, once I hit an area of old avalanche debris. There was no obvious visible change, but the snowpack was close to 200cm deep, and very stiff below the January storm snow. Another portion of this complex avalanche path released during the holiday storm period, filling the main track with debris down to around 9,700 feet.
Avalanche
A pair of skiers ascended through a steep northwest-facing forested slope with one to two-foot thick, widely-spaced mature trees that showed signs of prior avalanching (no branches on bottom six to eight feet).
At around 10,700 feet, the pair triggered an avalanche that broke around two to three feet deep, on weak snow near the ground. One skier caught a tree very quickly, the other caught a tree after taking a ride downslope. Both skied out under their own power.
The avalanche ran around 600 vertical feet. Initially it broke about 40 feet across, but widened to more than 100' as the slide accelerated through the forest. The debris piled up four to eight feet deep once the avalanche entered the main North Chute on Park Cone Mountain.
At around 10,700 feet, the pair triggered an avalanche that broke around two to three feet deep, on weak snow near the ground. One skier caught a tree very quickly, the other caught a tree after taking a ride downslope. Both skied out under their own power.
The avalanche ran around 600 vertical feet. Initially it broke about 40 feet across, but widened to more than 100' as the slide accelerated through the forest. The debris piled up four to eight feet deep once the avalanche entered the main North Chute on Park Cone Mountain.