Sawatch

Avalanche

Anonymous · Feb 12, 2020 · Sawatch

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Weather

northwest wind, intermittent snow showers, temps in low teens

Snowpack

slabs over depth hoar at bottom of snowpack, with fresh wind loading on top

Avalanche

Remote triggered southeast facing bowl. skinning east "down" ridge near the south shoulder of the ridge. Caused decent sized whumpf, crack, and collapse on the south side with no actual avalanche, but whumpfing noise continued behind me. heard louder more distant whumpf in the 2-3 seconds later, turned around to see large avalanche in southeast facing bow connected to the ridge I was on, just north of the "Question Mark". I was about 1/4 mile away from the slide when I triggered it. Slide went to ground from the start. hard slab avalanche. Large crown height, I'm guessing 6ft in spots, several hundred feet wide. Heard snapping trees after slide went out of sight.