Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Mar 2, 2022 · Sawatch
Weather
Calm and warm. High clouds moved in mid-afternoon which made it feel hotter with greenhousing. Skies cleared again late afternoon.
Avalanche
I went and looked at a widely propagating avalanche in the north cirque off Mt Arkansas. The avalanche was mostly northeast-facing but wrapped to both north and east aspects. The avalanche broke 18 to 24 inches deep on a buried layer of near surface facets. Above the near surface facets was a very thin melt-freeze crust. The slab hardness from the surface was four-finger (top 20 cm), and then 10 cm of pencil-hard wind slab, and then one-finger snow above a thin melt-freeze crust above the failing facets. Of note, this large avalanche in an areas with a relatively shallow snowpack did not break at, or gouge to the ground. This particular area sees strong winds regularly so it is not that common to see a well preserved and thick layer of facets buried intact near ridgetop.