Gunnison

Avalanche

Evan Ross · Jan 7, 2019 · Gunnison

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Weather

Headed out after noon. Obscured sky and snowing S1 for most of the afternoon. We were not observing much for wind, but the wind was certainly blowing slow above our elevations and on the way back home in open valleys.

Snowpack

Several muffled, but far traveling collapses on the 1/6 thin crust. However avalanches were failing about 5cm above the crust within the recent storm snow. That bottom 5cm of the storm snow was very soft and full of stellars. Spent a long time looking at these to make sure it wasn’t a layer of SH. HST wast about 16 to 18″ in this area at 3pm. Shooting cracks down to the storm instability on many slopes there were not steep enough to avalanche.

Avalanche

Several human triggered Storm Slabs. Mostly remote triggers. Small in size with one D2 on a bigger slope. 3# SS-AS-R1-D1-S. SW to W 1# SS-ASr-R2-D2-S/O. West 2# D2 to 2.5 natural avalanches out the NE facing Climax chutes. Poor visibility, could only see debris.