Sawatch

Avalanche

Geoff Guthrie ยท Feb 24, 2014

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Weather

Sunny w/ scattered puffy altocumulus cover; 1.67*C at noon at nearby Brumley SNOTEL; steady 15-20mph W (260* to 280* all day) wind gusting to ~30mph; occasional banners from ridgelines at all aspects- high winds in the alpine!

Snowpack

ALL SE-E-NE ASPECTS ARE HEAVILY WIND LOADED from recent winds. Major wind transport this past week. BTL: HS 30cm in wind-scoured valley floor locations to 160-200cm in others. Ski penetration off skin track 5-10cm and only one trap door found BTL entire tour. N aspect uptrack, 10,500' to TL was wind-loaded and wind-slabby. Hasty pit at TL 11,400' glade revealed ~10-15cm wind slab on top of settling recent snow and facets from ground to 20cm up. ATL wind-buffed everything with depth variability all over.

Avalanche

39.02172*N, 106.54897*W Naturalcornice failure from 12,800' saddle above 12,600' cliff band running across ENE bowl of UN point 13,090'. Likely wind-caused and propagated in diamond shape that funneled through cliff band and lost steam ~500' below. No stepping down below recent storm slab/wind load above nor below cliffs. No binoculars, so estimated R2 D3 (refrigerator?-sized debris chunks) A few days old; maybe in conjunction w/ observed natural cycle at 2-15 Brumley path to 2/17 Parry Peak?