Sawatch

Avalanche

Rich Rogers · Dec 11, 2020 · Sawatch

Weather

Snow with breaks in the clouds. A few snow squalls moved through. Might have picked up 1.5 inches for the duration of the tour(~4hrs). Snow was falling straight down at TH. Later in the tour, winds increased and knocked new snow out of trees. BTL, W-NW-NE.

Snowpack

Shallow. Low density. cold. dry. NO support with-in layers or at interface. These two distinct layers seemed to break together not individually. Equally weak at the moment. Did not feel much of a slab if any. Many test slopes revealed no propagation beyond tip or tail of ski, just loose snow sliding and arresting before reaching the bottom of test slope. No cracking or collapsing.

Avalanche

Small dry loose, point releases that would entrain snow off of road cuts. Found an old avalanche W, BTL along route. U-U-R1-D1-O