Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Feb 14, 2020 · Aspen
Weather
Snow transport was light until the afternoon when it seemed to pick up just near ridgetop. Temperatures were very warm and springlike. Winds at ridgetop kept things cool.
Snowpack
No signs of instability were observed. I traveled near steep slopes and no cracking or collapsing.---The snow surface was moist on all sunny slopes but rollerballing was minimal.---I dug on a southeast-facing slope near treeline and found a 150 cm deep snowpack. A slab two feet thick rests on top of a melt-freeze crust with facets beneath. The crust was almost an inch thick, thicker and stronger than other places that I have traveled. This could be because I was on a steeper terrain feature than for previous obs. I got a result of ECTP29 in an extended column test on the facets below the crust (64 cm from the surface).---In another snowpit near treeline on an east-facing slope. the height of snow was 180 cm. No results in an extended column test.---Probing around a north-facing near-treeline slope the snow depth was about 260 cm. This area likely had some wind-loading from the last storm.
Avalanche
Several fresh wind slab avalanches were observed on easterly slopes. Hard to say when they occurred but likely witin the last 24 hours. None of these reached D2 in size. The east side of Independence Pass saw an avalanche cycle during our last big storm. The avalanches that I could make out were all on the small side of D2 or less. The only very large avalanche in this area was the previously reported Everett D slide.