Gunnison

Ski triggered a small windslab on a crossloaded slope near treeline. Documenting a handful of avalanches (wind slabs and persistent slab(s)) that ran during the recent wind events around 1/16 to 1/17.

cloud cover: clear; wind loading: none; recent snowfall (cm): 0; snow avail for transport: none

I found propagating results on the Christmas facet layer on an ENE aspect NTL.  The weekend wind slabs showed a mix of propagating results and non-propagating results on SE aspects, depending on if they formed over dry facets (on the shadier half of SE) or crusts (on the sunnier half of SE).   Snow surfaces going into our next storm are highly variable.  Below treeline, melt-freeze crusts span southerlies, thinning and transitioning to weak facets around due east.  Near treeline is similar in sheltered terrain: crusts on southerlies, facets on northerlies.  Hard windboard and faceted sastrugi are common in wind-exposed terrain.  Alpine slopes look heavily wind-affected in most areas, a mix of erosional features and windboard.   . Targeted a few features holding wind slabs with no signs of instability until I triggered one with a very aggressive ski turn.