Sawatch

Avalanche

Ian Hoyer ยท Mar 13, 2015

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Weather

Very variable weather. Mostly cloudy and snowing with some periods of heavy snowfall. Occasional clearing of the skies. Very warm when the sun popped through the clouds.

Snowpack

Below treeline, thick crusts on most slopes. North facing slopes with trees for additional shade were only BTL slopes without crusts. BTL is mostly locked up with these crusts. Ground also exposed in a number of places. NTL and ATL, crusts on NW-N-E. Found a number of slopes with HS~50cm, bottom half rounded depth hoar, top half new snow. ECTX results on NE and E facing slopes, snowpack has done a lot of bonding. Cornices are also getting very large on east facing ridgelines, 20ft+.

Avalanche

Observed several old Wind Slab avalanches, crowns and debris are mostly covered.