Sawatch
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Ron Simenhois · Mar 20, 2019 · Sawatch
Snowpack
Most of our trip focused on covering ground and looking at recent avalanche activity (see avalanche obs). We did dig one snowpit on a northwest-facing, near-treeline slope just to the north of Cottonwood Pass. The snowpack depth was about 210 cm. A progressively harder slab, up to pencil hardness, was 120 cm thick. This slab rests on a thin layer of facets with a hard to detect and decomposed crust above the facets. We got moderate tests in a compression test and did not perform any other tests due to time constraints. The other layer of concern, besides the facets at 90 cm, was four-finger hard depth hoar at 60 cm. Both of these layers would be incredibly hard to affect due to slab thickness and hardness. Not impossible though and backcountry riders, especially large triggers such as snowmobilers should keep this in mind. Steer clear of rocky slopes with an uneven snow distribution where the slab has many thin spots.
Avalanche
Overall the avalanche activity we viewed was spotty. We expected to see evidence of a widespread cycle but did not. The largest avalanches viewed were the two already reported low down on the Cottonwood Pass Road off of Sheep Mountain. The next largest avalanches were off of Jones Mountain (also already reported) and what looks like very large avalanches in the easterly paths of Park Cone in the Gunnison zone. A few large avalanches were spotted on westerly slopes north of Tin Cup Pass. Surprisingly there were almost no avalanches viewed on large west and southwesterly slopes that drop into Upper Taylor Park and beyond. Hard to say if this area saw limited activity or saw a widespread cycle early on in the storm and crowns are now mostly filled in. I lean towards the latter.