Valanga

Gunnison

Zach GuyGunnison
Vedi sulla mappa
Foto dell’osservazione 1Foto dell’osservazione 2Foto dell’osservazione 3Foto dell’osservazione 4Foto dell’osservazione 5Foto dell’osservazione 6Foto dell’osservazione 7Foto dell’osservazione 8Foto dell’osservazione 9Foto dell’osservazione 10Foto dell’osservazione 11Foto dell’osservazione 12Foto dell’osservazione 13Foto dell’osservazione 14Foto dell’osservazione 15Foto dell’osservazione 16Foto dell’osservazione 17Foto dell’osservazione 18Foto dell’osservazione 19Foto dell’osservazione 20Foto dell’osservazione 21Foto dell’osservazione 22Foto dell’osservazione 23Foto dell’osservazione 24Foto dell’osservazione 25Foto dell’osservazione 26Foto dell’osservazione 27Foto dell’osservazione 28Foto dell’osservazione 29Foto dell’osservazione 30Foto dell’osservazione 31Foto dell’osservazione 32

Weather

Cloud cover increased midday. Cool temps. Previous moderate drifting, most recently from northerly winds. Settled storm totals increased from 30 cm below treeline to 50 cm above treeline. cloud cover: scattered; wind loading: previous; recent snowfall (cm): 50; snow avail for transport: large amounts

Snowpack

I was trying to find a pattern of where storm slabs formed over facets, but it wasn't abundantly clear. In hand pits, I found concerning structures and produced occasional collapses on SW, E, and NE aspects NTL, and not N, SE, or S.  Areas that saw wind drifting before the main snowfall event were most concerning because they held a thin layer of stiff, drifted snow above the facets, creating a more abrupt hardness change.  I found the buried facets below treeline, but the slabs weren't well-developed and didn't provide any feedback.  Snow surfaces became moist on sunnier aspects at mid to low elevations from morning solar.  . Triggered several shooting cracks on steep, windloaded test slopes NTL. On low-angle terrain, we felt occasional muffled collapses on facets below the storm snow on E, NE, and SW aspects. Collapses were more common when a thin, harder layer of wind drifted snow capped the facets (from pre-storm wind events).

Avalanche

Over the past 24 hours, many soft slab avalanches ran naturally in the new snow, including a couple today due to solar warming. These were mostly near/above treeline and D1 to D1.5, with a few D2s. Today, I triggered a couple of storm slabs about a foot thick (up to D1.5) in relatively sheltered terrain and a small wind slab on a drifted test slope. These were all near treeline.