Gunnison

Avalanche Information

The Ruby Range saw a natural cycle of storm and wind slabs, typically D1.5-D2 during Sunday's storm, with large avalanches up to several hundred feet wide on Owen, Afley, OBJ, Augusta, and Purple Mtn. I'll code these later. There were a handful of small natural wind slabs and cornice falls that ran on Tuesday or Tuesday night. Today, we intentionally triggered two wind slabs on northerly aspects around 13,000'. One broke about 16" deep on facets (4/26 interface), the other broke about 6" deep in storm snow. We also triggered a small wet loose avalanche below treeline on a northeast aspect this afternoon.

Weather

Moderate winds, a mix of sun and clouds, one brief snow squall, cool temps. cloud cover: broken; wind loading: light; recent snowfall (cm): 4 cm on Tuesday, 45 cm on Sunday/Monday; snow avail for transport: small smounts

Snowpack

On average, there's about 18" of settled storm snow (up to 30" in leeward terrain) down to the 4/26 interface, which is typically a melt-freeze crust. The interface was dry facets on a due north slope at 13,000'. The snow surface was staying dry through most of the day around the compass, but this afternoon in the far Northern Ruby Range, we found the top inch or two had gotten moist or wet on all but due north, causing numerous small rollerballs. Triggered a couple of wind slabs, and noted a handful of natural wind slabs in the past 24 hours. Some slopes around Purple Mtn produced rollerballs on east and northeast aspects above treeline.

Photos (21)

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