Sawatch
AvalancheSteve Banks · Nov 24, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
Sunny, cool, light winds. Temps remained below freezing. Despite some flagging in the high peaks in the morning only light, intermittent Westerly winds were noted on our tour
Snowpack
Near treeline (11,200') snow pits showed a generally weak snowpack. 50-75 cms HS throughout the terrain. Roughly half the snowpack is old, faceted snow capped with a thin 1-3cm crust with the top half of the snowpack being recent snow. Other than the crust, no snow observed was harder than 4F+, with most of it being Fist hard. We observed previously cracked easterly slopes (yesterday?) and experienced 2 whumphs on North facing slopes. Our snowpack tests on North and East fasting slopes consistently failed just below the crust in the top 3-5 cms of the faceted snow. Test results were generally CT Moderate and ECTP with moderate to hard results and resistant planer failures. 1-3 cm surface hoar on all aspects this morning.
Avalanche
The steep road cut just on the North side of Monarch Pass across form the Snow Stake parking area held a SS-N(?)-R4-D1.5-O this morning which we did not observe last night. Possibly triggered by the snowplow/blower?