Sawatch
AvalancheKreston Rohrig Rich Rogers · Feb 12, 2025 · Sawatch
Weather
Broken clouds, cold temps/wind chill, strong Southwest winds causing blowing snow across open slopes at all elevations.
Snowpack
On a southwest slope near treeline, snow was 90cm deep, with 6cm of new snow on a melt-freeze crust and weak snow underneath. On a sheltered northeast slope, snow was 130cm deep, with 10cm of new snow, a few decomposed layers over weaker snow to the ground. Snow tests on the northeast slope failed suddenly at the December 9 interface under moderate and heavy loading. Deeper hard slab avalanches will become easier to trigger when new snow slabs overlay areas of weak snow adjacent to these pre-existing hard slabs.
Avalanche
No new natural activity. Old, hard slab debris was visible on a few Northeast, wind-drifted slopes near treeline of Hancock Pk.