Gunnison

Avalanche

Crested Butte Avalanche Center · Jan 9, 2014 · Gunnison

View on map

Weather

Overcast skies with very light snow, increasing around lunch. Moderate W winds shifting to SW in the afternoon. High temp of 21 at 10k and 10 at 12k. Heavy snow at 1745, 1-2”/hr intensity, snow and blow

Snowpack

HST 4” of low density powder 3.5% with 1” of settlement all as of 1600. HS 51. 4F wind slab from moderate SW winds loading east barkmarker as of 1500. Skied paper boy route ski checking on route to investigate Sunny shoulder slides, cracking 10-18” deep and 10-20 foot wide pockets pulling all along ridge. 2 Slides in sunny shoulder SS-ASu-R2-D2-O ran on 2-3mm RR facets on surface of 4cm knife hard crust. Wide propagation and 2m deep debris. See pics in separate email (don’t have compatible cables for my camera to download here). Stability rapidly decreasing at 1800.

Avalanche

Sunny shoulder released 2 notable soft slabs failing on facets between crusts , ~14” crown ran full track, sensitive. Also, noted small, fast moving sluff and a very small pocket popped skiers right late in afternoon