Sawatch

Avalanche

Spencer Herford · Dec 1, 2021 · Sawatch

View on map

Weather

Warm temps and a very light westerly breeze.

Snowpack

Below treeline on northerly slopes had a shallow snowpack in various stages of faceting. We did find it was supportable in some areas, and in others we broke trail down to the ground in well developed facets. South facing slopes were either bare or had very little snow to speak of. Snow on these southern slopes was moist around 1100. Moving near and above treeline, snow cover was uneven in coverage and structure. We did find some pockets of a slab resting atop weak snow, though the slab was at most one finger hard and more like four finger in most areas we probed. Looking in some wind drifted areas I was unable to find evidence of cracking or collapsing.

Avalanche

I saw two wet loose avalanches on east facing slopes above treeline. Both R1D1.