Sawatch

Avalanche

Ben Pritchett & Bo Torrey · Mar 20, 2021 · Sawatch

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Weather

Cloudy and warm. Gusty southwest winds above treeline that moved a little snow near ridgelines.

Snowpack

Trail conditions were firm in the morning but quickly warmed and softened the snow. North facing slopes below treeline became damp. Strong southwesterly wind were drifting snow above treeline onto easterly-facing slopes. The overall snowpack depth in the area near Tincup Pass and Napoleon Pass is noticeable thinner than other parts of the Gunnison and Sawatch zones. The snowpack depth at the site of a snowmobile triggered avalanche on Friday was 85cm deep. In the thinner snowpack areas the weak snow near the ground has not seen the same strengthening of the weak layers that deeper areas in the snowpack have.

Avalanche

We observed 5 dry slab avalanches failing near the ground that all appeared to run on March 19th. 3 of them were triggered by snowmobiles, 2 of them were triggered by natural loose wet avalanches.