Sawatch

Avalanche

John Mackinnon · Mar 24, 2017 · Sawatch

Weather

Obscured skies trending to Broken, moderate northerly winds with occasional light blowing snowing at ridge-tops. Measured an air temp of -3C at 12 pm at 11,200 ft, but it warmed up significantly in the afternoon.

Snowpack

Weak re-freeze despite a prolonged period of temperatures below freezing last night (per Fremont Pass Snotel). Found no more than 15 cm of recent storm snow in areas where the wind had drifted snow onto SE and S aspects near TL. The storm snow was resting on about 5-10 cm of refrozen snow on all aspects/elevations we visited today. Below that the snowpack did not get a solid re-freeze and remained moist and wet. Ski penetration never punched through the crust and boot penetration only occasionally did except for after 3 pm below TL on our egress. Recent storm snow was becoming moist on south aspects by 2 pm. Observed fresh cornice formation on ridge-tops above south facing slopes.

Avalanche

We did not observe any avalanche activity.