Gunnison

Northerly and westerly winds are forming thicker slabs on the lee sides of terrain features. Wind-loaded terrain has become the most likely area to trigger a slab avalanche today. You may encounter recent wind-loading on the lee sides of ridgelines or in unusual locations like cross-loaded terrain features lower on a slope. Small, dry loose avalanches are also occurring in some steep terrain that has stayed protected from the wind. Carefully consider the snowpack structure and potential terrain consequences before traveling in avalanche terrain.  You can avoid avalanche problems by riding on wind-sheltered southerly facing slopes.

This week's winds are wreaking havoc on the snow quality in some areas while also forming hard slabs on the lee sides of terrain features. We have seen multiple wind events from the north over the last week, while the wind direction notably changed and began blowing from the west last night. Perhaps this change in wind direction was able to find a little more snow available for transport. We can't rule out the possibility of a natural avalanche on slopes that are seeing active wind-loading. However, most of the active wind-loading should have already occurred by now, and there shouldn't be much snow left for transport. These newly formed hard slabs have become the areas that are the most concerning for triggering a slab avalanche today. 

The possibility of triggering dry loose avalanches on steep, northerly facing slopes has also been present for some time. The most recent sluffs that stand out have been observed in the climax chutes, where a couple of dry loose avalanches have run naturally. These avalanches have produced some sizable debris piles after accumulating additional mass while running through the terrain. This observation also noted a dry loose avalanche problem last week on Mt Axtell. Not all slopes are producing sluffs, as snow surfaces are wind-affected in some cases, or the snow surface has simply not become weak enough to lose all its cohesion.