Sawatch
AvalancheM Dillon · Feb 24, 2018 · Sawatch
Weather
Summit of Taylor Hill: - Elevation 11,732ft - Aspect 40 deg TN - Wind from the West, roughly 15 - 25mph gusts (not confirmed) - Cloudy, slightly snowing - 10-15 degrees F (cheap lanyard thermometer)
Snowpack
Avalanche Crown / Trigger Point: - Taylor Hill - Elevation: 11,693 - Aspect 40 deg TN Quick Hand Pit dug while on rappel off a dead man anchor above and past the roll over. Top Layer: 4-6in new wind deposited, non-cohesive snow, wasn't bonding to second layer. Second Layer: 6-8in Wind Slab, pencil hard. Third Layer: Unknown Depth, faceted low density slab, super scary when found, didn't dig further.
Avalanche
Avalanche Crown / Trigger Point - Taylor Hill (39.3860, -106.2884) - Elevation: 11,693 - Aspect: 40 deg TN - Slope Angle: 35-37deg (measured after the fact, and for the starting zone / trigger point). - Crown Width: 10 - 12 meters - Crown Height: 1 - 2 meters - Distance: 30 - 25 meters While discussing whether to ski this line or traverse all the way around the East / South East ridge up towards Chicago Ridge, I volunteered that we could practice the ski rappel and inspect the slope so we built a dead man anchor roughly 10 meters from the edge of the convex roll over. The dead man anchor was around 1.25 meters deep, and while building it no obvious hard slab layers or worrisome weak layers were encountered. I rappelled (backed up with tail knots and a third hand) into the line, unfortunately a bit past the trigger point (~10ft past it), got my skis perpendicular to the fall line and jumped 6 -7 times on the slope with no response at all. At this point I radioed to the group that I was going to dig a quick hand pit because the slope seemed stable, initially. I quickly discovered that the newly drifted snow (4-6in) hadn't bonded at all to the second layer and that the second layer was 6-8in of pencil hard wind slab. After getting through the second layer, I found it was "supported" by non-cohesive medium-grain facets. I quickly radioed to the group that we won't be skiing this line and told them I'd be climbing back up immediately. I struggled to make progress due to punching through into the weak layer, so I un-clipped my skis to use them as a pull-up bar and began ascending pausing to pull slack through my belay device as I climbed. On the 3rd overhead placement of my skis, I felt the skis punch through the top layers easily and all the snow under me washed away, I looked over my shoulder and saw everything to my right had let loose. My spotter saw the slide happen and called it out on the radio, I then responded that I was fine and that I was standing on the bed layer of facets. At this point I was right in front of the crown which was roughly 2 meters tall. It looked and felt like a step down avalanche triggered by my skis punching through the identified wind slab, which appears to have thinned to around 1 - 3 in at the trigger point. I took some pictures while contemplating climbing over the crown / hang fire ( I don't know if it was, but it was spooky looking). At this point my spotter radioed to me that there was a 1 - 2 in wide crack running along the edge of the roll over and we agreed that the best course of action was to ski down the bed surface and into the trees. As I descended through the trees I kept finding that wind slab layer in the un-sheltered openings so I stuck to tight trees and skied a lot of downhill kick turns. In the mean time half of our group decided to return to Vance's while the other half started to traverse the ridge to find a low angle entry into the area I was in. During this traverse they discovered that the crack ran along the ridge for a little over half a kilometer. They then discovered what looked like a remote triggered avalanche that was approximately 3-4x larger than the original slide. This slide is around 600 meters away from the first slide. They took some pictures and then skied down to me and we all returned to Vance's via Taylor Rd. which wrapped around the north of Taylor Hill. Second Avalanche Info: - Location: 39.3843, -106.2816 - Elevation: 11,608 - Aspect: 30 deg TN - Unknown avalanche characteristics, but see the pictures. - Size of debris "car / truck" size blocks.