Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Nov 30, 2018 · Sawatch
Weather
Mostly cloudy this morning with good visibility before 11 AM. Clouds increased and by the time I left at 2 PM it was socked in and snowing an inch/hour. Snow tapered as I drove east on HWY 82. Light wind near treeline with light wind loading. There were no visible snow plumes above treeline in the morning. Two to four inches of recent snow in the last few days.
Snowpack
In general the snowpack structure is poor. A one-finger hard slab rests on a layer of fist-hard faceted snow. This most concerning layer is mid-pack and the facets underneath are relatively stronger. Kind of irrelevant as an avalanche on the mid-pack layer would likely step down. If it didn't it would be big enough anyway.---Pit results as follows...SE 11200 BTL, CTE 22 down, HS=55...NE 11800 NTL, ECTP11 40cm down, HS=80...E 12000 NTL, ECTP4 30 down, HS=80---No major cracking observed, significant rumbling collapse right at treeline
Avalanche
This observation includes one avalanche near Tennessee Pass seen on the drive and one avalanche in Graham Gulch near Independence Pass. Both avalanches look to have released very recently.