Sawatch
SnowpackBen Pritchett · Feb 26, 2020 · Sawatch
Weather
AM partly cloudy, cool, breezy w/ moderate blowing snow throughout the upper Arkansas Valley. PM squall moved in bringing dense cloud cover and an increase in winds. No precipitation where we were, but we could see a few showers over the higher peaks of the northern Sawatch.
Snowpack
Significant recent wind effects with freshly shaped cornices and lots of wind textures. The southern Sawatch near Monarch Pass is still holding a dense snowpack remnant from the early-season snowfalls, but snow surfaces have grown haggard. Lots of sun and wind effects, with plenty of bare ground and rapidly diminishing snowpack depth as you approach valley bottom. Then central Sawatch has been blasted by recents winds. Windward slopes have much more rock than snow. The alpine snowpack is thin, wind-battered, and drifted into low gullies. Few faces on the eastern front of the Sawatch even have continuous snow field, although the peaks behind the eastern front have much more continuous snow cover. The northern Sawatch has the deepest snowpack and was the only place where we saw significant avalanche activity (see Jason Konigsberg's observation from 2/26 for recent avalanches). Traveling near and above treeline north of Arkansas Mountain, we found a highly variable snowpack. Despite many attempts to get cracks or collapses near shallow spots, we only observed three very minor (<3' long) cracks in one spot.