Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Nov 11, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
We didn't get up to ridgeline but winds were gusting 20 to 30 anywhere above treeline. The snow depth (HS) ranged from ~45 cm to ~70 cm where drifted. There was about 9 inches of recent storm snow. It was lightly snowing most of the day with obscured skies.
Snowpack
About 9 inches of snow with wind was enough to get our first whumpfs of the season. This was near to above treeline where the slab was slightly stiffer than below treeline. We did get one whumpf or collapse at the upper end of below treeline but for the most part there is just a lot of weak snow below treeline but no signs of instability or wind affected snow. In a northeast-facing near-treeline snowpit the snowpack is 2 feet deep (60 cm). There is 9 inches of fist to four-finger hard progressively harder storm snow on top of 18 cm of weak near surface facets that formed early in November. Extended column tests showed easy propagating results on the top of this faceted layer. Below the buried near-surface facets is more faceted snow. These faceted crystals are larger grains, up to 2mm, and showing signs of turning to depth hoar with some striations visible. This layer occupies the bottom 10 cm of the snowpack. We also got easy propagating test results on the top of this layer.
Avalanche
Visibility was limited. There may have been a few small natural avalanches below ridgetop, but I couldn't say for sure.