Valanga

Gunnison

Eric MurrowGunnison
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Weather

Clear skies, mild temperatures, and light winds at the below treeline elevations. cloud cover: clear; wind loading: none; snow avail for transport: moderate amounts

Snowpack

In general, we found a snowpack depth of around 40 to 60 cm on northerly slopes in these areas.  The faceting process continues to weaken the snowpack structure, but thankfully holds just enough strength to keep skis off the ground and prevent a Loose Dry avalanche problem.  Slab avalanche issues below treeline in this area would be few and far between due to a weakened slab.  Only in isolated places with some wind stiffening or loading would you find a cohesive slab and potentially pry out a small avalanche below treeline. Snow surfaces became moist by midday on east slopes at 10,800 feet. . We produced a few collapses on the north half of the compass, but none travelled beyond 15 feet. Cracking was infrequent with collapses.

Avalanche

I documented a few more natural avalanches from the 12/6 storm. All appeared to run during the storm with some storm snow on the bed surfaces. Many of the start zones in this area naturally avalanched during the storm. A few small Wet Loose avalanches ran today from steep, rocky sunny terrain features at mid-elevations. Most photos simply showed roller balls and not loose avalanches.