Sawatch
AvalancheBo Torrey, Jason Konigsberg · Mar 27, 2021 · Aspen
Weather
Mostly sunny with thin clouds covering the high peaks. Temperatures stayed cool but strong sun on southerly facing slopes. Occasional snow flurries and light to moderate west northwest winds drifting snow but confined to high elevation ridges.
Snowpack
12 to 18 inches of new snow in the area. The underlying snowpack is supportable and you can walk in the new snow without sinking into older layers. Southerly-facing slopes became warm and damp but not wet. A thin crust had formed on the surface by the time we rode out in the late afternoon. We observed one small loose wet avalanche and one small wind slab above treeline just below a ridgeline with large cornices along it. Winds were transporting snow in the morning, less so in the afternoon.---Overall, we mostly found a deep and relatively stable snowpack along the Continental Divide. We constantly probed the snowpack and had difficulty finding a snow height of less than 2 meters. This was also true on the Aspen side above Ivanhoe Lake. Lower down, below treeline, the snowpack is shallower and ranges from 120 to 160 cm. But even in the shallow areas, the snowpack is supportable and it is hard to affect weak layers. The main concern for triggering an avalanche that breaks at the ground is on northerly below treeline slopes with a thin snowpack and rocky ground cover. The same holds true for any slopes near and above treeline with rocky, inconsistent coverage, though it seems like these are much harder to find.
Avalanche
Visibility was in and out with convective clouds popping up. During times of decent visibility we did not notice any large avalanches anywhere around Hagerman Pass including the Upper Fryingpan and Ivanhoe Creek.