Gunnison
SnowpackCBAC Staff · Dec 23, 2023 · Gunnison
Weather
Crested Butte got a little taste of the Milk Jug effect, with a thick layer of moisture moving in and out. Calm wind. Warm temps. 8cm HST at 3:30pm.
Snowpack
The new snow didn't notably change avalanche conditions from yesterday. It did add a little volume for skier-triggered loose snow avalanches, but those sluffs were running slow and relatively easy to manage. If we had enough snow to form a new slab, then it looks like it would have failed on the old faceted snow surface, or just above and within the storm snow. The persistent slab structure was virtually nonexistent on this tour. The start zones had gone wall-to-wall during a previous avalanche cycle. There was very little undisturbed snow in the middle and upper elevations of this tour. While down low the slab was faceted out. HS avearged in the 60 to 80 cm range with isolated pockets in the 100cm range. There wasn't any SH under the new snow, and I didn't find any other notable layers of buried SH.