Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Mar 11, 2023 · Sawatch
Weather
This area received 12" of snow with .8" of snow water equivalent. It was surprising to see snow densities in the 7 percent range but this seems current based on manual and automated obs and also what the snow felt like underfoot. Skies were obscured in the early morning. By 9 AM there was decent visibility and clouds were starting to break. Winds were mostly light. This changed when a few snow squalls rolled through in the afternoon. There was also visible loading above treeline before clearing began at 9 AM.
Snowpack
New snow totals increased from 12 inches near the road to about 16 inches near treeline. Below treeline the new snow was all fist hard and not cohesive or slabby. I dug on an east-facing slope at the upper end of below treeline and found a reasonably strong snowpack with a snow height of 162 cm. There are crust-facet combinations buried beneath the new snow, and although the snowpack is somewhat strong, there are structural issues that could become active with a large load. The Friday/Saturday storm was not enough weight to activate buried weak layers in sheltered areas. With a settling slab and more snow on the weight, these layers could become active with the mid-week storm. East and southeast-facing slopes are most concerning as this is where these crust-facet combinations sit under new snow and deeper. The crusts on southeast near treeline are thicker, so it will take a larger load, but the facets underneath a stack of crust-facets combos is much weaker then notherly-facing slopes. On northeast-facing slopes near treeline, I dug in somewhat drifted location and found a snow height of 220 cm. I did not get any propagation in Extended Column Tests both under the new snow and on faceted layers that were slightly deeper.---Winds were drifting snow into stiff, one-finger hard slabs in the afternoon. I traveled across some steeper terrain features and did not find these newly formed wind slabs to be reactive. No shooting cracks or avalanches observed.
Avalanche
A few small D1 avalanches that ran as loose dry or small slabs. No avalanches that I saw entrained anything but new snow. There was one larger avalanche in the Star C path, but I could only see the debris. I could not make out the crown.