Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Max Forgensi · Feb 17, 2020 · Sawatch
Weather
Skies were obscured for some of the day with occasional breaks in the clouds. We weren't on any ridgelines but we did not notice significant wind loading. That could be due to the limited visibility.
Snowpack
We were curious to see what Propagation Saw Test (PST) scores were on the basal facet/depth hoar layer. This layer is buried deeply and hard to affect in an Extended Column Test (ECT). Recent avalanches in the area seem to be breaking at the ground and not beneath the storm snow from Feb 6/7. We dug on an east-facing near-treeline slope and found a snow height of 167 cm. The two layers of concern were facets beneath the storm snow at 57 cm from the surface and 1 to 2 mm facets on top of depth hoar at 30 cm from the ground. Neither layer showed any propagating results in an ECT. The upper most layer of concern propagating a fracture to the end of the column at a 45 cm cut length in a standard-sized PST. The lower layer of concern showed a propagating fracture to the end at a 25 cm cut length. With this result the whole column dropped suddenly and dramatically.---No signs of instability were observed in the ~8 inches of new snow. We were in mostly sheltered areas and didn't get into any recently wind loaded areas to observe those.
Avalanche
One avalanche noted in the first below-treeline slide path coming out of Leadville on the east side of the highway above the railroad tracks. This avalanche occurred within the last 24 hours.