Sawatch

Avalanche

John MacKinnon ยท Dec 15, 2016

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Weather

Overcast skies with high thin clouds, mild temperatures (-4C @ 12K @ 1:30 pm), light westerly winds with periods of stronger winds and light blowing snow.

Snowpack

Toured up to 12,100 ft on SW aspects. HS averaged 50 cm between 11,300 ft and 11,700 ft, and got a lot more variable near and above TL. The California Gulch area received roughly 7-8 cm new snow overnight. The snowpack consists of December storm snow resting on weaker sugary November snow. The December storm snow is gaining cohesion and settling into a slab but the bottom 10 cm of early season snow remains faceted (10 cm of 1-2 mm FC) on those aspects. Near TL and above TL the snowpack became a patchwork of discontinuous slabs, crusts and ground--the heights of snow ranging from 0 to over 80 cm, but in many areas the same structure existed. I heard lots of rumbling collapses on SW aspects at all elevations and observed minor localized cracking. Lots of evidence of previous blowing snow from westerly winds near and above TL. A quick test pit on a NW aspect at 11,200 ft revealed the bottom 15 cm of the snowpack as weak and sugary with December storm snow settling into a slab on top. The height of snow at this location was 45 cm. Bottom 5 cm were depth hoar (3 mm) and above that was 10 cm of facets (1-2 mm). Two compression tests dropped suddenly at the interface between the facets and this month's storm snow--CTH (SC) x 2 on FC up 15 cm.

Avalanche

I did not observe any avalanches.