Sawatch

Avalanche

Ron Simenhois · Feb 5, 2024 · Sawatch

Weather

Warm, above freezing, with a thin layer of clouds covering parts of the skies, and no winds.

Snowpack

The snowpack where I traveled was about 130 cm deep, stable snow. It has a P hard, 40-50 thick mid-slab layer above the Basal Layer. On S aspect, at 10:30, I saw three WL avalanches out from cliffs. The supportive CR layer on the surface BTL caused me to suspect these avalanches were from the previous day.

Avalanche

The avalanches I saw are small D1, natural WL avalanches on the south aspect, and they look like they started from the cliffs. The time I saw the avalanche and the surface conditions (CR) caused me to suspect that these avalanches were from the previous day.