Gunnison

It's the same tune on a different day. Don't let message fatigue set in. Slab avalanches that are large enough to burry and kill you remain possible to human trigger. Many slopes appear to have quieted down, but some are still hanging in the balance and could easily catch you off guard. Careful snowpack assessment is necessary if you intend to ride in steep terrain on the northern half of the compass. The last two notable avalanche results were a large slab avalanche that was remotely triggered on Friday, and another human triggered avalanche last Sunday. You can decrease your chance of triggering an avalanche by riding lower angled slopes or southerly facing aspects. 

The primary avalanche problem is specific to the northern half of the compass, with mostly crusty conditions having redeveloped on the southern half of the compass. Recently we started to change some of the wording for the persistent slab avalanche problem, to consider managing trigger points and the total depth of snow in the terrain you want to ride. Slopes with a below-average snowpack height for the area are more suspect. Friday's avalanche on Mt Owen fits this mold, with the HS near the crown around 2 meters, where the average HS in that area is likely 3+ meters. The SE Mountains generally have a shallower overall snowpack, and it is slightly more common to find slopes where the weak layer is buried slightly closer to the snow surface. When weak layers are closer to the snow surface it is easier for the weight of a human to collapse them. Those weak layers are also slower to heal when they are closer to the snow surface, compared to when they are buried deep in the snowpack. For example, this observation from the NW Mountains found the weak layer of concern buried deeply at 150+cm and 1f hard. If you look at the snowpack somewhere that the weak layer isn't buried so deep, you will most likely find that it is softer at 4F to F hard and this would be far more concerning. Trigger points work much the same way, they often bring the weak layer closer to the snow surface and also can cause that weak layer to be noticeably weaker than elsewhere on the slope. These are just ways to help you reduce the chance of triggering the persistent slab avalanche problem, but by no means will it completely eliminate that chance. This leads to the other part of the travel advice, when in doubt simply head for lower consequence terrain or slope angles in the lower 30-degree range and less. 

The last D3 avalanches were recorded on February 28th. This morning there was a small edit to the avalanche problem size, and now the average size of a triggered avalanche across both forecast zones is expected to be in the D2 to D2.5 range. When we go back into another notable loading period the avalanche size will begin to creep back up. 

On Saturday, March 19, 2022, two skiers were involved in an avalanche in the North Fork of Fish Creek, northeast of Steamboat Springs. One of the skiers did not survive the avalanche, and the other was evacuated via helicopter. Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family and everyone involved in this accident. You can read the preliminary report here.