Sawatch

Avalanche

Zach Taylor ยท Apr 26, 2014

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Weather

Sunny, breezy, with moderate spring temps.

Snowpack

Solid freeze overnight across elevations. Consistent snowline was around 10,500'. The couloir never corned up. We waited until 1230 to drop. Snow in the couloir was pretty firm with a couples inches of newish dry snow.

Avalanche

While snow stayed firm on upper elevations, the at and below treeline elevations got wet and sloppy by the afternoon. We observed one wet slab avalanche that ran on a SE aspect, at treeline elevation, above Sheep Gulch. I would roughly estimate the upper parts of the slope to be about 45 degrees in pitch. D2/R2 It ran sometime between our ascent up in the morning and egress in the mid afternoon (1500 or so).