Grand Mesa

Snowpack

Brandon Levy · Jan 3, 2018 · Grand Mesa

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Weather

Mild temps, light W-NW wind, no precip, and scattered high cirrus

Snowpack

Discontinuous, very shallow, and weak best describe the snow on the ground on Grand Mesa. HS at 11000' was generally around 20 cm with previously drifted snow up to 40 cm on the N side of the ridge. The HS on the S side was 0 cm with a few patches of maybe 10 cm. On the North side where more snow was present, it consisted of large DH crystals frozen together as a 1F melt freeze crust topped with F-4F faceting storm snow from December. Even on the N facing slopes many anchors broke up any continuity of the snow on the ground as the HS is not sufficient to completely cover the surface roughness of the rocks.