Details

• Date: 2020/01/02

• Observer: Ben Pritchett
• Organization: Forecaster, CAIC

Location

• BC Zone: Gunnison
• Area Description: Anthracites

Weather

• Ridgeline Wind Speed: 5-10 mph
• Ridgeline Wind Direction: NW
• Wind Loading: None
• Temperature: 18 F
• Sky Cover: Scattered
• Depth of New Snow: 28 cm
• Depth of Total Snow: 140 cm
• Weather Description: Light northwest orographics. Scattered to Broken skies, cool temps, light winds. Clouds enshrouded the peaks, but pretty good visibility near treeline.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: About a foot of fresh snow that generally bonded well to the old snow surface. The worst upper snowpack structure was on southerly aspects, where the storm snow sat on a thin and friable crust with small facets below. We triggered a few small soft (almost slab) avalanches that broke below the crust. On these same sunny aspects, cornice drops triggered avalanches that broke within the storm snow, not stepping down below the crusts. Near treeline, there was plenty of evidence of light and sustained drifing, but we found no reactive wind slab development. Drifted snow was 4F to 4f- in hardness. Natural activity on these aspects was all within the storm snow, mostly running as Loose Dry avalanches. On the northerly slopes without the thin crust and facet combination, we pushed the new snow into loose dry avalanches, but saw no activity below the storm interface.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: Numerous small avalanches. Mostly Loose Dry, with a few shallow soft slabs breaking within the storm snow.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2020/01/02  †	Anthracites	3	TL	S	SS	AS	R1	D1
Date: 2020/01/02 (Estimated) Observer: Ben Pritchett Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Sunny side of the Playground Landmark: Anthracites
	2020/01/02  †	Anthracites	1	TL	E	SS	N	R1	D1
Date: 2020/01/02 (Estimated) Observer: Ben Pritchett Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Playground (sunny side) and East Bowl Landmark: Anthracites
	2020/01/02  †	Anthracites	2	TL	N	SS	N	R1	D1
Date: 2020/01/02 (Estimated) Observer: Ben Pritchett Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Playground (dark side) Landmark: Anthracites
	2020/01/02  †	Mount Emmons	1	>TL	SE	SS	N	R1	D1
Date: 2020/01/02 (Estimated) Observer: Ben Pritchett Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Coon Basin Landmark: Mount Emmons

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