Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Dec 19, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Light to moderate winds with little snow transport.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is soft with not much of a slab. The hardest snow is about 4-finger hard but not much of that. The weakest snow is 1-2 mm facets about 35 cm from the surface. This weak layer sits over larger facets that are harder, making a decent bed surface. No depth hoar noted although the basal layer is showing some striations. A bit like last year. We got constant collapsing near treeline. Above treeline we attempted to remotely trigger a wind-loaded gully by skiing down a grassy subridge but no luck.---We dug quickly on a southeast near treeline slope and found about 10 inches of recent snow sitting on top of very weak facets on top of an impenetrable thick crust. Snow depth was about 45 cm. No slab yet.
Avalanche
We remotely triggered (from 10 feet away) a steep previously wind-loaded pocket in a gully. Also reported is a smallish avalanche in the Lake B highway path. This avalanche is new. Older avalanches reported from the drainage east of Graham Gulch. This was a widely propagating avalanche. See photos.