Sawatch

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · Feb 6, 2024 · Sawatch

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Weather

Mild, windy, and cloudy. Southerly winds were moving snow but I didn't observe effective transport. I didn't travel above treeline.

Snowpack

The only collapsing I observed was on facets beneath the newest melt-freeze crust at the surface. This was a couple of inches deep so just a concern for the future. The newest melt-freeze crust is an inch thick or more on any southeast and other southerlies. On east-facing slopes, the surface crust is thinner and surrounded by facets—so another new potential weak layer to deal with. The layer buried on February 2 is the same on east-facing slopes (a thin crust surrounded by FC/SH). I dug on some northeast-facing slopes and found soft snow from the last storm 25 cm thick over broken and tilted SH and FC.

Avalanche

Recent small slab in the Lake B path.