Sawatch
AvalancheSarah Baker · Feb 19, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
Low teens, moderate intermittent wind, patchy clouds in the morning. Sunny and warmer temperatures in the afternoon. Negative temperatures and strong winds the night before with a dusting to a few inches of new snow.
Snowpack
Dusting to an inch of new snow on a wind slab, with several deeper persistent layers. No formal assessment of the snowpack was made. The layer that broke was a deep persistent layer close to the ground.
Avalanche
Avalanche was triggered on a rollover (30 degrees) at about 12,000 ft on a SE facing slope. The crown broke approximately 250 feet across and ran approximately 400 ft downslope where it settled in an open lower angle area. The avalanche crown was approximately 4 ft at maximum and broke to the ground where the rollover occurred. The avalanche broke roughly 50% across the small cirque