Sawatch

Avalanche

Arden Feldman · Dec 14, 2017 · Sawatch

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Weather

Moderate northerly winds and moderate loading above tree line. Broken skies with some sun working its way through. Cooler than yesterday.

Snowpack

Around 3 inches of new snow getting blown around a lot above tree line. Loading on southerly slopes. Took a very quick look at the thin snowpack of a near tree line WSW slope and found the new snow sitting on a ~1cm melt freeze crust on top of ~5cm of facets on top of a very stout melt freeze crust. Unsure of the spatial variability.

Avalanche

I intentionally skier triggered multiple very small wind slab avalanches on a south facing wind lip above tree line. Crowns ranged from 3-6 inches thick and ran on a slick crust at the new/old snow interface.