Gunnison

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett · Nov 3, 2018 · Gunnison

Weather

Overcast, high temp of 28 degrees, light northwest winds, no precipitation.

Snowpack

Snowpack averaged 50 to 70 cm total depth on Baldy's Northeast Face. Max depth 110cm in drifted parts of gullies. From the bottom up, 1mm basal facets capped with a 1F hard crust, topped with recent snow. The depth of the Nov 1 storm snow above the crust varied significantly from Thursday's northwest winds. Friday night's snow was mostly un-wind effected soft and dense (rimed new snow mixed with graupel).

Avalanche

We began skiing down from 11,700' around 3pm. There were 3 tracks on the slope from earlier in the day. Our group chose to ski further skier's right to get into snow that was less sun effected. 5th turn in, the 1st skier in our party punched through the supportive crust slightly and kept skiing. Skiers 2 and 3 yelled but skier 1 didn't hear, so they yelled louder. The slide was moving very slowly and skier 1 had ample time to ski to the left flank out of the slide. We watched the slide churn over 1000' vertical down the main gully, then skied down the on the flank and later over the debris en route to the valley floor.