The snowpack on the east side of the pass is thin. Average snow weights were bare ground to about a meter of snow. Lots of small trees, rocks, and stumps were poking through the snowpack. Above treeline, the south, southwest, and west-facing slopes were the shallowest with, almost no snow on them. Overall, the snowpack is unsupportable to both machines and foot penetration. This snow made of challenging ride conditions. If you let off the throttle going uphill, you'd get stuck almost immediately. Some more east-facing slopes near-treeline had wind-pressed snow on top of very weak older snow. We saw several older avalanches, two of which were reported around the beginning of January but one that had not yet been reported.

Cottonwood Pass, Buena Vista, CO

We rode up from Denny Creek Trailhead, then worked south towards Lost Lake, and then over into the Gunnison side

We saw several older avalanches which were reported around the beginning of January. There was one that had not been reported which was a large (R2D2) natural avalanche on an east-facing slope above treeline. My guess is it ran around the same time as the others.

The snowpit I dug on a sheltered east-facing slope near a treeline around 12,000ft was 70cm deep with about 40cm of depth hoar that cascaded out when barely touched. I got propagating results as I isolated my Extended Column Test. ECTPV.

A beautiful Colorado bluebird day with calm winds.