Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Apr 24, 2020 · Aspen
Weather
Periods of obscured skies with light snow showers followed by breaks of sun. Off an on like this most of the day with more clearing in the afternoon. Breezy but little snow being transported.
Snowpack
4 to 5 inches of new snow sits on a melt-freeze crust 2 inches thick. Although the crust is very supportable to skis, it is somewhat soft at lower elevations and you can punch through it while walking around. Below this crust is wet snow at below treeline elevations. Near treeline the snow is drier. Both near and below treeline a second crust is buried about 45 cm from the surface. This crust is very hard and is what foot pen is down to.---No wind affect from recent winds in normally sheltered areas. North-facing avalanche paths were cross loaded from west to east with recent winds. I didn't get into wind-affected terrain and I certainly would be avoiding these features.---The 4 to 5 inches of snow would sheet of the shallowly buried crust when coerced on most aspects near and below treeline. It took a steep slope to make this happen and due north aspects seemed to stay fairly dry.---We got one small collapse on a low elevation northerly slope near the creek where the upper crust was collapsible and the snowpack was wet throughout.
Avalanche
None observed