Gunnison
AvalancheEric Murrow · Feb 17, 2022 · Gunnison
Weather
Partly cloudy skies in mid-morning, orographically driven cloud cover and very light snowfall midday over the spine of the Ruby Range, and clearing skies by sunset. Moderate northerly winds with stronger gusts through 1pm shifting to the northwest later in afternoon.
Snowpack
New snow accumulations maxed out at 5 inches on Purple Ridge near treeline. North to northwest winds transported snow throughout the day in the Ruby Range onto east through south aspects at upper elevations. At ridgetop, I was able to get some ski-length cracking in fresh cornice formation, but drifted features up to 14 inches deep did not crack. On shaded slopes below treeline, I found the 5 inches of storm snow resting on a mix of weak facets, friable melt/freeze crusts, and supportive windboard and did not find signs of instability. It seems like there were isolated Wind Slabs up high, the potential for old hard slabs from previous winds, and sluffs on weak shady slopes, but no Storm Slab problem.
Avalanche
Observed numerous small Loose Dry avalanches on north through east aspects coming out of rocky upper elevation terrain. One fresh shallow slab immediately below a ridge top in Wolverine Basin and another deeper-looking crown on an northeasterly-facing part of the apron in Wolverine.