Sawatch
SnowpackJeremiah Primmer · Apr 7, 2022 · Sawatch
Weather
Strong winds and clear skies, southerly and easterly surfaces became moist but just at the surface near treeline and above.
Snowpack
On the way to the trailhead, some impressive plumes were coming off the mountains in the Sawatch, but the loading was ineffective, with most of the snow just blowing away. Looking at a large recent reported avalanche, the looker's left flank was hemmed in by a rock feature where the slab petered out. Otherwise, it probably would have broken wider. I found some shooting cracks in wind slabs near treeline, but they were on small isolated semi-protected slopes. Protected near treeline northerlies hold about a meter of soft faceted snow that could be an issue if a slab was put on it. Above the treeline, the snow surface was wind-blasted, and I could not find a windslab problem. The snow height varied greatly from just scree to 300cm deep wind-loaded slopes. The mid-winter facets are rounding and a combination of pencil hard wind slabs and crusts on the top of the snowpack, making it hard to affect them. On the east face of Mt. Arkansas, there were two relatively recent large avalanches. The couloir off the summit looked like a wind slab had failed from cross-loading northwest winds during the last couple of days. On the east face just north of the summit, a crown wrapped around 800’, and the avalanche ran for 1000’ vertical feet that most likely failed on the mid-winter dry spell facets. This avalanche appeared to be about a week old.