Avalanche

Slate River to Poverty Gutch

Evan RossGunnison
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Quick report

Cracking
specific
Collapsing
specific

We had a couple of collapses on southerly-facing slopes. Shooting cracks were confined to northerly and easterly-facing slopes.

Weather

Cloud Cover
clear
Wind Loading
previous
Recent Snowfall
25 to 35

Cold temps throughout the day, but the clear sky and warm sun sure helped. Generally calm winds.

Snowpack

On Southerly facing slopes up to 12,500ft, we observed a couple of collapses, but now shooting cracks. The recent wind-loading and wind-loaded terrain features were our primary concern while traveling through the terrain. Those features appeared to be reactive yesterday with a number of small natural, storms or wind slab, avalanches. However today those same features appeared to be stubborn or unreactive to triggering. We performed one ECT test on a SE slope at 11,500ft with no result. The old crusts buried in the snowpack are helping keep the skis off the ground on southerly-facing slopes and making for some ok skiing. The recent wind affected snow and thicker wind drifts were the main things that decreased ski quality. 

Avalanche

Size
D2
Count
8
Aspect
E
Trigger
N
Elevation
12200 ft

The recent avalanche cycle continues to be observed on northerly and easterly-facing slopes, primarily above 11,000ft in elevation, but there have been a few at lower elevations. There were also a number of small wind slabs or storm-related avalanches that ran yesterday on east and south aspects.