Gunnison
AvalancheEric Murrow · Dec 30, 2021 · Gunnison
Weather
Overcast skies with continuous light snowfall from 11am-4pm. Around 4pm snowfall rates increased. Winds were generally very light between 9,600 – 11,100 feet. Trees at the summit of Snodgrass were holding lots of snow.
Snowpack
No signs of instability during the tour, I traveled off the beaten track in several areas on sunny and shady slopes. I dug a profile on a southeasterly slope at 10,400 feet and found a sensitive storm snow interface around a foot below the surface but did not experience any cracking underfoot. A second interface, in the middle of the snowpack, was softer than layers above and below but did not produce propagating results. Snow depths on northeast through east through southeast slopes ranged from 130cm to 180cm.
Avalanche
I inspected several previously reported avalanches on northerly slopes from 12/27 (likely ran on 12/24) and found around 2 feet of low-density snow accumulated on bed surfaces. I purposely traveled above 1st and 2nd bowls to look at slopes that avalanched during 12/9-10 cycle to find out if these slopes avalanched again, and, to my surprise, these slopes appeared to be holding all of the storm snow since 12/23.