Gunnison

We are no longer issuing daily forecasts.  Springtime generally offers a more trustworthy and predictable snowpack for travel in steep terrain. However, avalanche hazards exist into the late spring and early summer months in the Elk Mountains.  Use extra caution during and shortly after snowstorms, as well as during prolonged or intense warm spells.   Traveling early in the day is often a good strategy for avoiding wet avalanche hazards.  In the media gallery and discussion below, we've outlined the most common types of avalanches that you can encounter in the spring and how to manage them.

Be sure to click through the media gallery and read the captions below for more information regarding these problems.

Storm Instabilities: Spring snowstorms often cause short-lived storm instabilities involving new and wind-drifted snow, including both sluffs and slabs.  The more it snows, or the more wind transport there is, the more hazardous conditions typically become. Monitor the amount of fresh snow that has accumulated over recently buried crusts to gauge the potential size of avalanches involving the new snow. Expect deeper accumulations and thicker drifts as you gain elevation. Use small, steep terrain features to assess how well storm snow is bonding before moving into larger, more consequential terrain. Storm instabilities tend to stabilize after a couple of days during typical spring weather. Wind-drifted terrain and high elevation, northerly aspects are typically the slowest to heal.  

Wet Avalanches:  Wet loose avalanches are common in the first few sunny or warm days following fresh snowfall, or if snowfall changes to rain. Wet avalanches entraining the recent snow develop as the snow moistens and starts to rollerball or pinwheel down the slope. These slides will be larger in long, steep terrain or where there is more recent snow. Move to colder aspects or less consequential terrain when this starts to happen. If the snowpack undergoes prolonged warming without good refreezes, larger wet avalanches involving more of the season's snowpack can occur.  Due to the historic warmup in late March, most wet slabs involving old snow layers have now run their course. There might be isolated wet slab activity on high elevation, north facing terrain if we see a significant warmup later in May or June. Poor overnight refreezes and multiple days with unusually warm temperatures are warning signs for larger wet avalanche conditions. 

Cornice Falls: Cornices will continue to sag and fall randomly into summer, and they can produce large avalanches themselves or by entraining signficant amounts of snow below them. Cornices falls are most common during windloading events or significant warmups.  The simplest way to manage these hazards is to minimize your exposure below cornices and give them a wide berth while traveling along ridgelines. 

Additional Resources:  

• The CAIC will be producing avalanche forecasts for Colorado through May.
• NOAA point weather forecasts for 11,000'  for the Northwest Mountains and Southeast Mountains of Crested Butte.
• Weather station data for the Crested Butte area.  

Spring Snowpack Discussion (updated 5/03/2025)

This year's low snowpack suffered a significant warmup in late March, and water advanced through the entire snowpack around the compass (the only exception might be high north), melting back almost two months ahead of normal.  A cool, snowy April has preserved coverage and quality riding conditions near and above treeline, and with each April storm, we've observed storm instabilities followed by wet loose activity.  Deeper wet slab activity later this spring is expected to be rare because most, if not all, of the old snowpack layers have matured through previous melt cycles.

Throughout the remainder of the off-season, the CBAC will continue to maintain its observations page and update its Facebook and Instagram accounts to alert users of unusual or noteworthy avalanche conditions, should they develop.  Please keep sending us your obs! We sincerely thank everyone in the valley for your support this winter: our sponsors, partners, and all of you who share observations and follow along with our products.  Have a safe and fun spring season!