Sawatch
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 19, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
During the daytime, temps were around 15 f. Winds were very strong on the ridgetops.
Snowpack
The snow was about 130 cm deep in our "pole observations." There was a weak layer in the bottom 30 cm or so, but seemed like a typical CO weaklayer.
Avalanche
We abandoned our original plan to tour the Monarch Pass area due to Avy danger and instead headed up to the Lost Wonder Hut for a "safer" alternative-- but it was also an area we had never been to. At the hut, we heard that there were mellow slopes to the West and crossed the drainage. We followed skin tracks to the base of a massive avalanche that ran 1000 ft and tried to bounce back where the mellow slopes were. However, we ended sidehilling on a steep ~40 degree NE slope. From there we just to ski down instead of continued sidehilling. While we were transitioning, 3 out of 4 were caught in a slide and carried 100 ft downhill. No one was buried and we just got out of the snow.