Sawatch

Avalanche

Justin Swantek · Jan 11, 2021 · Sawatch

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Weather

The small storm on Saturday (1/9) dropped an inch or two in this basin. Sunday, the weather was clear, calm, and cold.

Snowpack

Everywhere there was a slab (which was nearly anywhere there was a clearing), we found widespread collapsing. This included every aspect except due South, where there was no snow BTL. The most interesting location was E/SE, Near Treeline: on this aspect and elevation, nearly every single path ran naturally (see photos). Although we did not dig pits above treeline, the instabilities were clear even at lower elevations.

Avalanche

In total, we observed 8 avalanches (more than in the pictures). All were on E aspects, near and above treeline. All were relatively small in scale (D1, maybe 2 D1.5), and were small for the paths (R1). 3 seemed to be caused by the new snow (roughly 1-2" in the valley bottom), and the other 5 ran some time in the near past.