Sawatch

Avalanche

John Mackinnon ยท Jan 20, 2014

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Weather

Clear skies and seasonably mild temperatures this weekend. Winds were light at 12K and we observed no blowing snow. Strong solar radiation for this time of year.

Snowpack

Skied mostly on lower angled southerly slopes near and above TL. They held cold snow for both Saturday and Sunday. Crusts forming on steeper slopes and at lower elevations. Observed several rumbling collapses on a west aspect at 11,800 feet on Sunday as well as shooting cracks. Cracks propagated ~10 meters.

Avalanche

Observed 4 D2 or larger slab avalanches that occurred during last week's avalanche cycle. Slides occurred on N, E, SE and W aspects above TL. Wind slabs were the pattern on cross-loaded features and I observed 2 D2 persistent slab avalanches from E and SE aspects above TL. I estimate that one of the crown heights was ~2 meters in a wind-loaded area; both of those slides broke into older snow and even gouged into rocks/ground in places. I would guess they slid on a FC/MFcr combination and stepped down through DH to the ground. The larger PS slab avalanche wrapped around terrain features and may have triggered up to 3 smaller slides sympathetically. Also observed many smaller slides from a variety of aspects and elevations.