Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Ethan Greene · Feb 17, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
Skies were mostly cloudy to start the day with a layer of clouds hanging around the peaks. Clouds broke up with mostly sunny skies by late afternoon. Very light winds on a near-treeline ridgetop. The temperatures were cold but pleasant when the sun was out. The sun was enough for thin crusts to form on the surface of southerly slopes as they became shaded later in the day.
Snowpack
No collapsing, cracking or any other signs of instability. Light loads in this area don't seem to be enough to change the big picture of the snowpack in sheltered areas. The Brumley Snotel has gained 1.6" of snow water equivalent this month and only .6" in the last 7 days. The most concerning layer is about 35 cms down. A thin layer of facets propagated a fracture after 18 taps in an extended column test. Not all that concerning with a generally thin soft slab on top but of course a different story in wind-loaded terrain where it can be buried 2 - 4 feet deep. Other soft faceted layers exist in the snowpack as well. Although the overall snowpack contains relatively harder layers over softer layers, a thick cohesive slab still seems to be lacking. With all of these small storms, snow falls, it facets, and thick enough slabs are not building up.---Concerning crust-facet combo on east and southeast 6 inches down from surface. Not an issue right now with no slab but a storm with an inch of water would make avalanches likely just due to this upper snowpack layer.
Avalanche
The only avalanches observed were two small Wind Slab avalanches. No avalanche cycle occurred over the Valentines Day period.