Gunnison

Avalanche

Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Mar 10, 2016 · Gunnison

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Weather

Weather: Blue Bird, barely a breeze on Richmond ridge. Enormous solar gain today.

Snowpack

Snowpack: 4-7″ new snow on frozen old surfaces. Most elevations seemed to have a good bond with the old surface. Till the sun got to it on steeper aspects.

Avalanche

Avalanches: After over night freeze, surface snow gained solar very quickly. Especially in absence of cooling wind.Snowballs rolling out of heating rockbands would fan out and pick up volume in track. By noon many areas were seeing surface, new snow, sluffs. Some ran long track. Didn’t observe any stepping down into old pack. Above 11,500 or so much evidence of wind transport and shallow surface wind slabs. On way out saw couple skier triggered new snow sluffs that ran long distances in confined features facing NE along Skuklyll ridge.