Sawatch

Avalanche

Dylan Craaybeek, Brandon Levy · Jan 22, 2022 · Sawatch

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Weather

Cold morning (7F), Few clouds, and Calm winds at 9:00 AM at the parking lot around 8800 ft. Sky coverage remained between Few and Scattered throughout the day with mostly Light winds and Moderate Gusts from the northwest. Light snow transport throughout the day. Temperature warmed to close to freezing (32F) by noon and remained sunny all day.

Snowpack

The height of snow (HS) throughout the Savage lakes drainage varied from 130-170cm consistently with deeper wind drifted snow near and above the treeline (200cm). Southerly facing-slopes steeper than about 20 degrees developed a breakable crust by the end of the day. The basal facets continue to show signs of rounding and were mostly between 4F to 1F hard on the hand hardness scale. Numerous snowpack tests show mostly stable results (see SnowPilot profiles). We got localized collapses and shooting cracks in isolated areas above the treeline where slabs of wind-packed rounds formed during and after yesterday's snowfall.

Avalanche

Observed a couple of small (D1) slab avalanches between the new snow/old snow interface likely today or yesterday as well as some very small sluff as the sun hit westerly slopes.