Valanga

Gothic Mountain

Brittany KonsellaGunnison
Vedi sulla mappa

Quick report

Cracking
isolated
Collapsing
Observed

Weather was rather fickle, with sky cover ranging between overcast and scattered. Temps were above freezing. Light to moderate winds from the west. Small amounts of precip in the form of rain.

Avalanche

Size
D2
Type
WL
Aspect
SE
Trigger
AF
Elevation
12200 ft

Around 11 to 11:30 pm we reached the ridge above the Spoon. The Spoon was warming quickly and we sent several roller balls down it from our steps. As the ridge narrowed, our roller balls triggered large avalanches down the southeast slopes of the mountain, running close to 2000'. The new snow was warming fast and was sliding in the dust layer. On this ridge, I also felt a collapse on a SE aspect. We descended west and southwest facing slopes at noon. The snow had not yet softened too much on that aspect, however there were multiple wet loose avalanches that had happened on that aspect the day or two before. As we descended to NTL, on a southwest aspect where part of a slope that had not slid, I felt a collapse and noticed a crack below me. The snow did not avalanche but the crack showed that it was new snow moving over the dust layer once again.