Gunnison

Avalanche

Brian Lazar Jason Konigsberg · Jan 13, 2016 · Gunnison

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Weather

COLD start to the day! -20F in the Gunnison valley, "warmed" to -12F at Taylor Res. when we arrived at 9:00 AM. We gradually climbed out of the inversion, and it warmed into the single digits by the time we hit Cottonwood Pass. When we got back to Taylor Res at 3:30 PM, temps had climbed to almost 30F.

Snowpack

Surprisingly thin and weak snow coverage. Snowpack below treeline averaged HS around 50-60cm and all facets. Even Taylor Park itself was too shallow to venture off trail without serious risk of hitting a rock or shallowly buried tree. Even nr and at treeline, remnants of earlier stiff (1F) wind-drifted slabs have dramatically eroded and faceted from both top and bottom. We tried to find isolated suspects areas nr and atl with stiffer slabs over weak snow, and the slabs have faceted so much we could only find them right below ridgeline atl, and even then they we re only a foot thick, and no results in snowpack tests. Near and btl, facet sluffs in steep terrain a distinct possibility.

Avalanche

Only observed a few isolated older avalanches which ran in very steep wind-loaded terrain atl. All D1 in size, and at least several days old.