Gunnison
SnowpackCBAC Staff · Jan 27, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
Beautiful day with warming temperatures and a calm wind.
Snowpack
This area had seen lots of previous wind effect. That old wind-affected snow surface was often covered by an inch or two of soft-faceted snow, making for some surprisingly ok riding conditions. There is still lots of variability, but it was better than expected. I didn't travel in areas where last week's hard slabs formed over soft facets, like in some cross-loaded below-treeline terrain. Where I traveled, the old snow surface had seen multiple wind events, creating more layers of hard snow and more variability. I targeted a number of small test slopes, looking for something interesting, but ultimately, I didn't find it. Trigger points and where slabs thinned looked like the most likely areas to find an unlucky or surprising slab avalanche result. North, 11,600ft. The slope had seen previous wind erosion. At the top of this slope, there wasn't a slab in the upper snowpack; instead, it consisted of a wind-effected and faceted upper snowpack. South, 11,600ft, 30-degree slope. HS 160. Layer of concern was 40cm below the snow surface with a thin layer of 4F hard 1mm rounding facets. This layer was surrounded by 1F hard snow layers. No result in a single small column test. There were not any strong/thick crusts in this snowpack until you got down to the December Drought Layer. West, 10,450. This was the very top of a steep slope. A thin crust was capping very weak facets and limiting the loose dry potential.