Avalanche

AMR

Ryan HuckGunnison
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Observation photo 1Observation photo 2Observation photo 3Observation photo 4Observation photo 5Observation photo 6

Quick report

Cracking
isolated
Collapsing
isolated

Dug a pit at the top of Big chute AMR on a north aspect around 11,470 Ft, the objective was to observe if the storm slab had become cohesive enough to produce any small avalanches. My results from my ECT test were ECTN9 on SH @30 and ECTN15 on DH @ 17cm. The snowpack lacked the structure to produce propagation here. Similar to the observations in Baxter Basin yesterday. This weak structure lead, to bottomless conditions. Bottomless straight to the ground. This PWL sandwich should be something to keep an eye on, as more storms head our way. There was cracking and collapsing on steep N-NE aspects near treeline, this problem was isolated.

Weather

Air Temp
19.5
Cloud Cover
overcast
Wind Loading
light
Rain Elevation
11,400
Recent Snowfall
28
Snow Avail For Transport
small smounts

Snowpack

The snow on the northern half of the compass has a PWL sandwich. DH 3.0 mm in size and 17cm thick with FC on top from 1.5 - 2.5mm and 9 cm thick with a massive 10cm-15cm SH on top. With about 11 inches of fresh dry snow loaded on the PWL sandwich. The snowpack was weak and non cohesive. On the southern half above 11,000 ft the snow bonded very well on a bomb proof crust

Avalanche

Size
D1 R1
Type
SS
Aspect
N
Trigger
N
Elevation
11400 ft

I observed a few avalanches in the playgrounds D1-D1.5 where there was lots of exposure. But was unable get any good pictures.