Sawatch

Avalanche

John Mackinnon ยท Mar 10, 2014

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Weather

Partly cloudy skies all day with lenticular clouds building to the southeast in the afternoon. Wind speeds picked up in the afternoon but temperatures remained mild. Observed a high airtemp. of 0C at 11,900 ft at 1430. Ridge-top winds were strong from the west with intense blowing snow later in the day.

Snowpack

Upper 1-2 cm snowpack became moist on SE aspects BTL by noon. Shady slopes BTL are still holding onto cold and dry snow. Winds kept all observed E and SE aspects cool near and above TL. Profiles on E-SE aspects BTL revealed a mostly rounding snowpack with an average HS of >2 meters. CT showed resistant fractures in the upper 30 cm. A deep tap test produced a sudden drop on rounding FC 25 cm above the ground--DTH (SC) on FCxr > 2.0 mm.

Avalanche

N.O.