Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · May 18, 2020 · Sawatch
Weather
Winds were generally light to start the day, increasing in speeds and becoming gusty by noon. A few clouds early in the morning decreasing with clear skies by 8 AM.
Snowpack
Similar to yesterday, above treeline slopes that are open, and don't have rocks poking through, are supportable. We were on a south-facing slope at noon and just the top inch of snow was thawed. The snow surface was still fairly frozen near ridgetop above ~13,700 ft. On the exit, lower elevation slopes, below about 12k ft, became unsupportable.
Avalanche
A few recent looking Wet Slab avalanches. The size D3.5 avalanche in this ob is an unreported avalanche from the March 2019 avalanche cycle.