Sawatch
SnowpackTom Gosiorowski ยท Feb 16, 2013
Weather
Quite windy near and above treeline with sustained winds in the 30s and higher gusts
Snowpack
We skinned and skied on a westerly aspect. Depth was about 70cm at 11100' to a maximum of maybe 100cm nearer treeline, and then much thinner above treeline. Snowpack at and below treeline consisted of about 15cm new storm snow over a light crust about 1cm thick over facets. Travel was very difficult and the snow was basically unskiable. I dug a pit near the road at 11100'. Facets at ground were 3+mm. Hardness throughout snowpack was fist except for the crust layer mentioned above that was somewhat harder but too thin and weak to really determine hardness of. Crust layer was not really noticable with pole probes or while skinning/skiing. Compression tests failed within the storm snow at CT2 and within the facets just below the crust at CT11. While skinning up we observed nearly continuous whumphing and collapsing. Radial cracks due to collapsing were visible up to 30 feet away from the skin track, but we never observed any true shooting cracks. Above treeline we found the typical alpine shallow hard windslab. The conditions at and below treeline were very unstable, and I would have rated the danger as Considerable. Our route had a maximum slope angle of about 25 degrees, and I would not have wanted to go onto any slope in this area over 30 degrees.