Gunnison
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Jan 12, 2024 · Gunnison
Weather
Overcast, cold, and increasingly windy in the afternoon.
Snowpack
8 to 10 inches of recent snow sits on top of the drought layer, making a small but very talkative Persistent Slab avalanche problem. This soft, premature slab is enough of a slab to crack and collapse in most wind-sheltered terrain that faces west to north to southeast below treeline. We did not experience any cracking or collapsing on south or southwest-facing slopes, so we found no signs of a Storm Slab avalanche problem. As we got above 11,000' the strong westerly winds built soft drifts onto the northeast-facing side of the ridge. We walked through these drifts and could get no cracking or collapsing. It turned out the drifting was almost building on bare ground. The X-mas north winds stripped snow out of these particular start zones and the drifting did not build on a prominant weak layer.
Avalanche
A widespread cycle of small avalanches where the ~8 to 10 inches of storm snow is breaking on exceptionally weak snow formed at the snow surface near the valley bottom during the recent drought. I expected to see some avalanches in wind-drifted features below treeline too, but surprisingly I saw none.