Sawatch
AvalancheBrandon Levy · May 3, 2021 · Aspen
Weather
Snowing with obscured skies to start the morning. Around 1100 sky cover transitioned to broken clouds and the snow stopped. Moderate southeast wind continued and increased during my short tour although transport was difficult to determine based on limited visibility. The rain/snow line was 8500' this morning during the drive up the west side.
Snowpack
5-6" (15cms) of new snow was heavy and dry to moist by 1100. The new snow adhered to the underlying dusty melt-freeze crust with no results after hard taps in a shovel tilt test. The new snow insulated the slowly re-freezing old snow which was moist or moist to wet melt-forms throughout. Ski penetration was generally confined to the new snow; however, there were trap-door conditions especially around vegetation where I would sink down into the old snow. Boot penetration was 25cms. Southeast winds had scoured the east facing start zones of the West Roaring Fork avalanche area down to the old dusty crust and I observed a similar situation on the southwest-facing start zone of Waterhole #1.
Avalanche
A few small loose wet avalanches from the cliff band in West Roaring Fork from Friday (4/30) or Saturday (5/1). Also a few small loose wet avalanches on the north-facing slope of Mount Shimer from the same time period.