Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Dec 15, 2020 · Sawatch
Weather
Northerly winds were moving snow near treeline with drifting evident. Skies were obscured so it was tough to see the extent of wind loading.
Snowpack
A thin slab sits over a faceted snowpack below treeline. At this elevation, the snowpack is still extremely thin.---Near treeline the snowpack is deeper and ground obstacles are mostly covered. I got a collapse on a low angle slope. As I moved higher, and the wind-drifted slab was thicker, I observed shooting cracks. A snowpit on a northeast slope was 77 cm deep with a 30 cm wind slab overlying faceted snow to the ground. Cracks propagated in ECTs on the buried near-surface layer which was about 45 cm down.---Around Fremont Pass, it seems the only place you can trigger an avalanche is where the wind is drifting snow. If that slope is a steep, drifted northeast or east-facing slope, there is a good chance you would trigger an avalanche.
Avalanche
I was able to push some snow, triggering small slabs breaking on mid-pack facets. As the avalanche ran it entrained loose snow running on the ground. One of the small avalanches sympathetically triggered a wider avalanche but this avalanche was still relatively small.