Sawatch

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · Mar 5, 2019 · Sawatch

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Weather

Warm with increasing clouds to overcast by 3 PM. Light winds at near-treeline ridgetop.

Snowpack

Thin surface crusts over soft low density snow on most aspects except northerly near to below treeline. This soft snow beneath the thin crust may be a future problem and easily collapsed with a large load.---I traveled on mostly east-facing slopes near and below treeline. In general I found 40 cm of right side up storm snow above a crust. No results in ECTS within the storm snow. Faceted snow exists beneath a rain crust which propagated a fracture in one out of two extended column tests (ECTP18). This faceted snow layer under a crust will be the most concerning layer for future loading. With a large storm we can see avalanche breaking deeper to weak snow at about 60 cm from the ground. Overall the snowpack has a bit of strength to it and will need another large load to see large natural Persistent Slab avalanches.

Avalanche

I only observed one previously unreported avalanche in the area south of Fremont Pass. Avalanche activity in this part of the Sawatch zone was large but isolated.