Western Colorado University and CSO

On March 2nd and 3rd students at Western Colorado University ventured out into the Gunnison Valley to collect snow depth measurements for CSO. The project brought all ages of students from first years to graduates together to learn about the importance of the snowpack through snowshoeing and hands on measurements.

Snowpack data from this headwaters region of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers is extremely valuable for quantifying spring runoff and predicting water availability for the entire American Southwest. The project was quite popular, and students at Western hope to develop and launch a student-lead project in order to continue taking measurements in the Gunnison in coming years.