Sawatch
AvalancheJeremy Primmer · Dec 15, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Noted some light windloading at ridge tops in the morning. In the afternoon the windloading decreased even though the wind stayed the same, the fetches are running out of snow.
Snowpack
Below the treeline, a continuous snowpack is building but is still shallow in many places. Near the treeline, I got collapses and wumphfs on east and northeast terrain, and I did not go on any north-facing slopes. I dug a pit where I got one of these wumphfs on a northeast-facing slope and found several generations of wind slabs sitting on weak old facets and got a propagating result with easy force failing near the ground. On southeast slopes in more protected areas, I found the new snow from the past week sitting on a breakable crust, and on more open slopes, it sits on a more robust crust. Yesterday's winds deposited one finger to four-finger hard wind slabs around the treeline that ranged in depths of 2" to 12". Above the treeline, the slabs were stiffer, one finger to pencil hard. I saw several avalanches ranging from D1 to D2.5. A couple of small wind slabs failed near ridgelines and then two that stepped down into older, weaker layers. The largest propagated 500' and stepped down to the ground on a NE facing ridgeline.
Avalanche
Saw several avalanches, all above treeline that failed near ridgelines from windloading yesterday. 2 small D1s from windslabs that failed on the new and old snow interface. 2 larger slides that stepped down into older weaker layers. One D2 that ran 800' through steep terrain with a crown that was limited by terrian features and on D2.5 that propagated 500' and stepped down to the ground. The debris was hard to see with the windloading.