Sawatch

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · Feb 11, 2020 · Sawatch

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Snowpack

Traveled mostly below treeline on westerly slopes. The snowpack is pretty bad on westerlies. Below treeline, a 14 inch slab of snow since Feb. 6, that increases in hardness with depth to pencil hard, sits above a melt-freeze crust with four-finger hard facets below. Surprisingly this crust/facet combo did not propagate a fracture but the depth hoar did with an energetic sudden collapse. Similar structure on near treeline west-facing slopes. Snowpack about a meter deep in these areas.

Avalanche

Numerous recent avalanches around Chalk Creek, Delmonica Gulch and Buckeye Gulch. Some crowns were almost filled in and they were hard to pick out without the use of a zoom lens. I think most of these avalanches ran around February 8th during the height of the storm but it is impossible to know for sure.