Sawatch
SnowpackEthan Greene ยท Dec 20, 2012
Weather
Clear skies with cold temperatures that warmed significantly during the day. You could see significant wind transport of snow. I was not able to observe the amount of new wind-load. Wind transport was visible below treeline in some areas.
Snowpack
The total snowpack in the area remains quite shallow. Most alpine areas around Twin Lakes have very little snow. Natural avalanche activity was significant, at least 10, but relatively small in size (most much less than 100' wide). Above treeline on north and northeast aspects. All on or west of Star Mountain. I did not see any activity between Twin Lakes and Star Mountains. The light and active wind transport made it difficult to deceiver some of the fracture lines. Many start zones contain as much bare rock as snow. Avalanche debris generally ran into the upper track of major paths.