Sawatch
AvalancheFritz Sperry · Jan 23, 2019 · Sawatch
Snowpack
We headed up the pass road from the closure at Denny Gulch Trailhead and discussed our options. We had already passed an option of Sheep Mountain in favor for more snow closer to the crest of the range. We ended up going for option 2. On our way up the road we also discussed Turner SE but decided to leave it for spring. Leaving the road we discussed the possibility of the steep open slope sliding, we avoided this by skinning the trees to the west of the face. This face would end up being our second slide. We hit a couple old roads and were testing entrances with cracking and whumphing results. once in open ground we considered our options and route carefully. More whumphing and cracking. After topping out at the last tree we meadow-skipped back down our approximate skin track to the crux. There was another feature that we were shooting for photos in addition to the feature that slid. I dropped in and out of the way on a pretty mellow slope. Skier 2 dropped in with no result. She went to the skin track below me. Rider 1 jumped in and got a massive whumph with settlement of about 5 inches, even 100' below. The jumping momentum carried the skier to our planned photo feature. You can't see all the cracking before he drops in but it was happening. He stopped at the crown and hopped off it, riding the crown along the flank. Soft Slab. Id say slope angle was about 37, aspect NE. Elevation is on the topo. Our skintrack was unaffected. We skied down one at a time below the slide to the trees and the skin track. to the lower face. This terrain reminded me of the 90s at Berthoud Pass. I entered into some tight trees and did a few cuts. Hit a pillow and landed on the bench above the lower steep. I triggered it about 100' above the crown. The bed surface was facet soup. Afterwards we had about an hour debrief over beers in Buena Vista. We were very careful on the way up but let our desire to shoot photos take over. This was a working tour so that was the plan. We did approach the first slope that slid from the margins which was the right approach, if we had just jumped in from the top, things could have been very bad. The lower slope was expected to slide. I felt that I could manage this given the shear quality that I was seeing and the lack of a terrain trap at the bottom. On our exit I saw a natural that I didn't notice in the am. It was on the ridge east of Gladstone Ridge
Avalanche
Boarder triggered, 50' from crown on lower angled terrain. Momentum of riding brought rider to crown edge where crown formed under board. The slide did not go around the corner of the ridge. We also triggered the lower slope. It released while I was 50' above the steep slope where the crown developed. I didn't check the bed surface of the upper avy but was told it was firm. Multiple step downs. Skin track on the up wasn't disturbed. Lower slide failed on large facets soup