Lawinenlagebericht

Gunnison

Crested Butte Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Sat
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
1 · Gering
Unterhalb
1 · Gering
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 3 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

We are seeing a return to normal caution avalanche conditions. In areas that see a few inches of new snow accumulate today, keep an eye out for small wind slabs forming on the lee sides of ridgelines and cross-loaded terrain features at upper elevations. 

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–1.5

    Once new snow begins to accumulate, southwest-to-west winds will begin to form fresh wind slabs on the lee sides of some terrain features. These slabs are expected to be small in size and may not develop until this afternoon. Keep an eye on how much new snow has accumulated as a reference for how much fuel there is for new wind slab formation. 

    Example of a small wind slab that formed on the lee side of a ridgeline earlier this winter. 

Avalanche Discussion

Skunky. We are still waiting for the snow to start accumulating as of 5am this morning. The better moisture stayed to our west and north overnight and favored areas like the Grand Mesa where they picked up around 4". The NW mountains still have a decent shot of new snow in the forecast for today and we will hopefully see that brown dust gets covered up for a couple of days. The SE Mountains don't look like they will do as well, but areas along the northern border could still pick up a few inches of new snow. The wind forecast isn't particularly bad today either and transportable wind speeds look to mainly occur at upper elevations.

Wet slab avalanches have become unlikely. Though they are worth a mention after valley temperatures recorded another poor freeze overnight. The source of the water draining into the snowpack has turned off, but the free water within the snowpack has yet to lock up. The most suspect areas would be steep rocky slopes at lower elevations. If you found yourself sinking deeply into a wet snowpack, it would be a clear sign, not to move into steeper terrain today. 

The cornice avalanche problem has also been removed from the problem list now that we have moved beyond the recent heat wave. Normal caution travel advice now also extends to cornice management. It's unlikely that a cornice would release naturally today. 

Looking ahead to Saturday, there could be some good creamy skiing options at upper elevations. It will be worth keeping track of how much snow accumulates over this 24hr period and planning for something fun. If we at least get 4" of new snow out there, that could ski really well in some alpine terrain with some nice weather in the forecast on Saturday too. Alpine winds on Saturday morning look to be moderate to strong out of the NW and that will be another factor to keep an eye on. Tomorrow's avalanche danger will again be driven by the new snow that accumulates today. Depending on how much snow accumulates we could also see some notes on loose wet avalanches over the weekend. 

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