Gunnison

On northerly aspects, we triggered many wet loose avalanches as we descended into below treeline terrain this afternoon. These involved all of the new snow (about 15" to 20") and typically ran on the storm interface. A few of the longer-running ones entrained the whole snowpack. Near treeline, we also triggered loose moist avalanches that involved only the upper half of the storm snow.

55 cm of new snow, @11,000 ft, with periods of intense snowfall during the day. Gusts of wind transporting new snow at ridgetops. cloud cover: overcast; wind loading: light; rain elevation (ft): 9200; recent snowfall (cm): 55

Coverage was thin below ~10,000 ft, where 8-10" of new snow was on bare ground or a thin snowpack comprised of mostly large, wet grains. As we gained elevation, we observed 20-25" of new snow that had 10" of more dense, moist snow on top of snow from earlier in the storm that was less dense. The storm interface in BTL elevations below ~10,500 ft was a thin, melt-freeze crust over moist-to-wet grains to the ground. Near 11,300 ft, we observed a refrozen interface that was ~20cm thick.   . The top half of the storm snow was upside-down and produced consistent minor collapses while breaking trail, about a foot deep. We observed a couple of larger collapses where the storm interface (a melt-freeze crust) collapsed into wet snow below it, about 2 feet deep.