Gunnison

Snowpack

John MacKinnon · Nov 29, 2011 · Gunnison

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Weather

Clear skies and light westerly winds at treeline today. Airtemp of -2.5 c at 1325 at 12,200 ft, but felt much warmer with sun.

Snowpack

Tour up sub-peak of Richmond Mt. in Ruby Range. On SE slopes ATL, snow became moist on ascent at 1230. It had re-frozen by the time we skied down at 1400. ATL snpx highly variable with buried slabs present in some areas and shallow bottomless facets in others. Surface was a mix of wind crusts and surface facets on shady slopes and melt-freeze crusts on more sunny aspects. Facets were present below melt-freeze crusts. Observed no signs of instabilities while skiing slopes up to 35* but carefully avoided steeper wind-affected convex rolls.