Gunnison
AvalancheEvan Ross · Mar 26, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
The weather was alternating between obscured sky and snowing, to broken with periods of sun. New snow today probably added up to an inch or two. Active wind-loading occuring at upper elevations.
Snowpack
In the valleys of Washington Gulch and the Slate River, the crust from last week is down about 5 to 10cm on average. That was due to either settlement or just lower snow totals at lower elevations. Recent storm totals of around 11,500ft are in the 20 to 35cm range. Wind slabs were the most common avalanche problem, with loose snow avalanches coming up next. There was a new snow instability within the storm snow that could have produced a wind slab on southerly-facing slopes, otherwise, the new snow was bonding ok to the old crusts in those areas. The only places I was able to get notable results were on ENE and NE-facing slopes, where the old snow interface consisted of small facets on a crust. Those small facets were not common across all east-facing slopes and quickly became more common once you turned north of about 65 degrees. The head-scratcher would be why those two somewhat wind-sheltered NE-facing slopes produced storm slabs when other NE-facing slopes just produced sluffs. Perhaps those slabs had a slight bit more wind effect to add some cohesion to the storm snow. Otherwise, while the weak layer was more consent on those aspects, the cohesion in the storm snow was more variable and the driving factor for slab avalanche release.
Avalanche
Triggered 2 small soft slabs on NE-facing slopes at 11,000ft. These F to 4F slabs failed on small facets above a crust. The crown height was up to 42cm. This terrain didn't appear to be wind-loaded, but the HST in the area averaged about 30 to 35cm. I tried cutting above other similar terrain without result.