Field Report

Gunnison - CO

2025/02/14
Lat: 38.918, Lon: -106.96
Backcountry Area: Gunnison
Author: Zach Guy
Organization: Crested Butte Avalanche Center

Report Information

Observation Summary

About 2 feet of top-heavy new snow made for very arduous trail breaking.  The persistent slab problem was starting to talk, but I didn't get the sense that the walls were falling down at this elevation.  On N to NE slopes, we would get soft collapses and cracks shooting about 20' in facets below the thin crust.  Where the crust was a little thicker, I would stomp through the crust with no feedback.  Slabs are still quite soft (all Fist hard) and 2 feet deep.  There was also cracking in the storm snow at various density changes.  There's ALOT of snow for entrainment, so in bigger terrain, any kind of avalanche would grow large enough to bury someone.  Tree wells / deep snow suffocation (NARSID) are also a current concern.  

CAIC Notes

Original CBAC ob: https://cbavalanchecenter.org/view-observations/#/view/observations/1b16c7e5-1df1-4233-99cb-de0c3f2caf1b

Area Description

Snodgrass Trailhead

Route Description

Went wallowing around in low angle terrain near Snodgrass TH and poked around on a few small, steep slopes facing E and NE, all below 9,500'

Avalanches

Numerous roof avalanches around Mt. CB. Visibility was too poor to see much avalanche terrain. The few small avalanche slopes that we looked at remained intact.

Snowpack

Cracking: Moderate
Collapsing: Moderate

Numerous soft/muffled collapses on shady aspects with cracks typically radiating 20 feet. One collapse was notably louder, not sure how far it radiated. These were all on the January facets below thin crusts, 60 cm deep.

Weather

Late PM tour: It was snowing over an inch and hour with light winds and poor visibility. cloud cover: overcast; wind loading: none; rain elevation (ft): N/A; recent snowfall (cm): 60; snow avail for transport: large amounts

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