Gunnison

Avalanche

Zach Guy · Mar 31, 2016 · Gunnison

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Weather

Few clouds this morning quickly built to overcast, then decreased to scattered. S-1 to S1 midday, with maybe an inch of total accumulation. Light valley winds from the west, calm winds elsewhere where we traveled.

Snowpack

4″ of low density new snow over older settled powder; sluffing easily but no storm slab concerns. Dug 4 pits on northerly slopes and found a mix of propagating and non propagating results on the March 6 facet layer, 18″ to 3 ft deep. Structure was most concerning mid slope near treeline, 500-1000 ft below the windloaded ridgeline, where the slab thinned but was still stiff enough for propagation. 1.) BTL N aspect: 45 cm slab over 1mm rounding facets; no distinct hardness change and no results ECTs 2 & 3.) NTL N and NTL NE (tree shaded) at windloaded ridgeline. 90-100 cm slab (4F+ or 1F-), over 4F-, 1-1.5mm rounding facets. Hard ECTN results and SC Compression test results. 4.) NTL NE, midslope. 4F+ 60 cm slab over F+ rounding facets on an almost in-perceivable faceted crust. ECTP14, SC results. See photo.

Avalanche

Skier triggered one D1 loose dry avalanche, which ran about 500 vertical feet, big enough to bury someone if it was in a gully.