Sawatch

Avalanche

Anonymous · Mar 11, 2017 · Sawatch

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Weather

Calm, slight breeze out of the west. Strong winds out of the west from previous night.

Snowpack

Stiff wind slab with some surface warming.

Avalanche

Skier remotely triggered avalanche on east aspect. Avalanche crown broke approximately 30 meters north of skier's tracks. Slope was approximately 29-30 degrees with convex rollover reaching approximately 30-32 degrees. The skier likely hit a weak spot in the hard slab that was shallow and propagated a crack across the slope to the area where the avalanche occurred. This was a heavily wind loaded area that was skied adjacent to a slope with signs of previous avalanche debris. Slide propagated for 75-100 meters in width with crown ranging from 0.3 meters to 2 meters.