Gunnison
SnowpackCBAC Staff · Dec 12, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
Calm wind and no blowing snow. Cloud cover increased from few to broken.
Snowpack
Looking around the area, the previous wind-loading is more isolated than specific, and much of the terrain is wind-eroded back to the old snow surface. It was challenging to find consistently soft turns, and it was also challenging to find obvious signs of instability. However, we persevered and found 2 slopes that produced shooting cracks. Similar terrain in the area didn't produce the same results and made the avalanche problem feel more isolated than specific. There is also far more thin wind-boards than there are actual old hard slabs. The two notable results we observed were on wind-loaded E and ESE-facing terrain features. One of those slopes had an HS of ~50cm and I didn't note the HS on the other slope. Where the snowpack is very shallow, the NSF at the 12/9 interface is notably weaker than other areas I looked at with a deeper snowpack of over 100cm.