Sawatch
AvalancheAlex Lee · May 3, 2017 · Sawatch
Weather
Partly Cloudy, Windy above 11,000ft
Avalanche
I skied up to Question Mark Bowl this morning around 9am. There was one other group ahead of us. Reaching the upper bowl a small natural avalanche was visible off the northern side of the upper slopes. From the looks of it, the slide was a D1 avalanche, south east facing. The slide appeared to be possibly caused by cornice collapse. Skinning up the trees to the north of Question Mark later this morning we had two large 'whoompjs' and shooting cracks in the new snow. From about 200ft below the ridge in those north trees we remote triggered (its also possible this was coincidentally another natural slide with warming) another D1 slide lookers right of the earlier natural. This was also D1, but appeared to step down into a layer deeper than the new snow. Both slides were on 40-ish degree terrain. We found stiff windslabs near and above treeline, and rapid warming on south through east aspects at all elevations.