Sawatch

Avalanche

Ian Hoyer · Feb 26, 2015 · Aspen

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Weather

Started off clear, clouds rolled in and snow started around 1 pm.

Snowpack

Numerous collapses in flat meadows and on east facing slopes BTL. Collapsing on NSF at Jan 11th crust. ECTP11 at Jan 11th NSF, 50 cm down, BTL, east aspect, HS125. Slabs were generally soft as we traveled BTL. In places with slightly more developed slabs we got widespread cracking and collapsing. Lots of weak snow BTL, slab development is the limiting factor.

Avalanche

Observed several small Wind Slab avalanches that failed naturally near ridgelines on windloaded east aspects.