Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Drew Gibson · Mar 4, 2024 · Sawatch
Weather
Peaks were in and out of the clouds. There was some decent visibility at times and even some sun. No new snow during the day. The storm total for this area is 12 inches.
Snowpack
We dug several snowpits on northeast-facing near treeline (and upper below treeline) slopes. The snow depth was 180 to 200 cm. 12 inches of fist-hard new snow sits over a dust layer and then harder snow. There are two distinct faceted layers at 50 cm and 80 cm from the surface. Although it's easy to see these layers, they are relatively strong and not reactive in tests. Below the layer, at 80 cm down from the surface, is a thick and hard slab of January snow. This slab is pencil-hard and even knife-hard in places. There are weaker facets near the ground (from the ground to about 45 cm from the ground) but it would be extremely difficult to impact this layer. West and northwest-facing slopes near treeline, where the slab thins, is where you would be most likely to trigger an avalanche that breaks on basal facets. In a pit on a west aspect near 11,000ft, ECT scores propagated at 14 taps, failing on small facets below two thin crusts simultaneously. The snow below these crusts is relatively firm and had no failures. On an east-facing slope, we found several buried facet/crust combos. An ECTP failed after 16 taps on facets above a crust 85 cm from the surface. Below the most recent snow, there is also a crust just below the dust layer. These thin layers of facets near the crusts are the layers of concern. Below treeline, the top 10cm of snow was warming and you could make an easy snowball on wind-sheltered, sun-exposed slopes by mid-afternoon.
Avalanche
We didn't see any evidence of avalanches breaking into deeper layers, although this evidence could have been covered up with all the recent drifting. We saw one small D2 natural from wind loading that only broke in new snow layers. The debris from the avalanches reported on February 25 is still visible, but the paths and starting zones have completely refilled.