Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Ben Pritchett · Apr 2, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
We stayed on the road and weren't at any ridgetop locations but the wind seemed calm and temperatures felt warm. No signs of snow transport.
Snowpack
Quick dig on west aspect below treeline at around 10,600' showed Melt Forms down about 5cm, with dry snow below that. We saw a slab 40-50cm slab resting on still dry, sharp Depth Hoar. We found frozen melt-water in the slab down to about 35cm, not quite to the Depth Hoar. This snowpack looks ripe for a Wet Slab avalanche cycle when the next significant warm up or rain arrives.
Avalanche
We went to visit the Clear Creek drainage to document avalanches from the March cycle. Most every path had run either to its maximum or close to it. 4 avalanches crossed the Clear Creek road prior to Winfield with one avalanche crossing the 4wd road southwest of Winfield. The most impressive avalanche (previously reported) came from a northerly-facing path off of Cross Mountain. The avalanche ran about 2500 vertical feet and covered about 700 feet of road with deep debris and thick timber. The avalanche ran about 75 to 100 vertical feet up the other side from the creek, converging with avalanche debris from a south-facing slope that also ran full path.