Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Apr 30, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
Skies were overcast with snow squalls in the morning followed by plenty of sun breaks, warm temperatures and partly to mostly cloudy skies in the afternoon.
Snowpack
I traveled from 10,500 to 12,300 ft on mostly easterly aspects. The recent storm snow measured about 12 inches with about half of that last night. The new snow is moist, with no instability noted in sheltered areas. The 12 inches of recent snow is bonded well to the an underlying crust. This was true in the morning but changed around noon when the intense late April sun made an appearance aided by greenhousing. See avalanche obs. Near and above treeline wind drifting was minimal today and didn't observe any cracking in recently wind-drifted snow.
Avalanche
I triggered quite a few small Loose Wet avalanches below 11,500 feet. The avalanches took all of the storm snow and ran on a melt-freeze crust. It seemed the slope angle had to be at least 38 degrees to get the wet snow moving. Although these avalanches would be rated D1 and small on the destructive size scale, they would easily take a person off of their feet. Given the right slope (consistently steep, at least 8 inches of storm snow and below 11,500 ft) avalanche size could have approached D2.