Gunnison

I observered one fresh Wet Loose avalanche and documented an old, Persistent Slab that likely failed during Wednesday's rain event.

Clear morning with thin, high clouds developing in the early afternoon. Warm temperatures and light wind. cloud cover: few

While traversing across the north side of Snodgrass, I didn't experience any signs of instability (almost no traffic in this area since last week's storm).  Between 10-11,000 feet the slab is typically around 20 inches thick (mostly 1 finger hard) with a melt/freeze/rain crust at the surface.  The weak layer remains notably softer than the slab above, but shows some signs of rounding under the loop.  A test profile at 10,600 feet produced moderate propagating results on a northeast aspect.  The unusually dense slab prevents signs of instability, but the structure remains poor and creates the opportunity for a surprise, large avalanche. I briefly touched some southerly terrain below treeline and found 2-3 inches of wet snow above a supportive snowpack.  Wet Loose problems seem to be few and small with this structure. I dropped below Gothic Road to investigate lower elevation northerly slopes and make sense of Wednesday's rain event.  The first feature I headed to failed naturally during the rain event.  While digging into the hangfire, I found two ice lenses in the middle of the slab and couldn't track meltwater below.  The large-grained facets at the bottom of the snowpack where the avalanche failed were moist, but I don't believe meltwater drained through. No signs of instability underfoot.