Sawatch

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · May 7, 2019 · Sawatch

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Weather

Mostly clouds skies today with filtered sun, a few breaks in the clouds, and even a short-lived snow squall. High temperatures were about 8 degrees cooler today according to the Brumley Snotel site.

Snowpack

I found a supportable snow surface this morning which was a little surprising given the warm temps and cloud cover. It seems the clouds were thin enough to allow radiational cooling of the snow surface. I traveled above treeline today and found a frozen snow surface at noon on southerly slopes. Surfaces were slick in spots with little softening. Once I descended to 12k the snow surface was still supportable to skis but foot pen was 40 cm and the upper snowpack was generally wet. I also got a collapse on an east-facing near treeline slope. The collapse was a similar depth to yesterday's collapses and avalanches at about 6 to 8 inches deep.

Avalanche

Possibly a few small, new, loose wet but no new large activity observed for a few days.