Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Feb 13, 2022 · Sawatch
Weather
Moderate, cold winds at ridgetop. No visible snow transport anywhere in the Sawatch.
Snowpack
Wind-drifted slabs sit over layers of fist-hard facets especially on east through south-facing slopes. Northerly slopes took a hit from the winds and any wind-drifted slabs on these slopes would be isolated. In one place I dug I found a couple of 3 to 6 inch pencil-hardness slabs with fist-hard facets sandwiched in between. This was a lightly drifted slope not near ridgetop. As evidenced by a reported avalanche in this area on Feb. 12, near ridgetop these slabs can be many feet thick. The tricky thing right now is that some of the most drifted slopes do not have the preserved layers of facets due to previous winds...but some do. It is really hard to nail down where in the terrain the combination of thick slabs are perched over a preserved faceted layer. The only way to avoid the problem is to avoid hard slabs. It seems that beneath cornices and a little ways down slope are where you are most likely to find intact and continuous facet layers with a slab on top, but again not something to bet on. I dug near the recent reported avalanche and found what you would expect- stiff hard slabs of snow over very weak fist-hard facets. Although not surprising, it is not common to find intact faceted layers that formed the near surface at these very windy locations. Usually these layers get destroyed before getting buried.---Other obs from this are indicate a shallow snowpack of less than a meter below treeline. Only northerly-facing slopes did not have a surface melt-freeze crust. Loose Dry avalanche issues were not observed. Winds have affected most elevations.---I dug on a southeast-facing near treeline slopes and found a snowpack of 150 cm. ECTP results 10 cm down and 20 cm down on faceted crystals.
Avalanche
One observed avalanche on east-facing slope near Buckeye Lake. Coded in a separate avalanche ob.