Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Mar 22, 2019 · Sawatch
Weather
Overcast in the morning with small windows of clearing the afternoon. A few snow showers but no accumulation.
Snowpack
I went to area that is usually thin and below treeline travel would usually be quite difficult. This is also an area I would think has generally one of the weaker snowpacks in the Sawatch Range.-- The snowpack was supportable and strong at all elevations with foot penetration of about 30 cm. It is hard to poke your pole through the progressively harder slab as the bottom of the slab has knife hard or harder snow. Below this slab is well-developed depth hoar. As the forecast says, the basal layers are very hard to affect but the structure in this area leaves a lot to be desired. Knowing what lies beneath is a little disconcerting. This isn't the thin layers of small faceted crystals found in stronger snowpack areas, it is well-developed depth hoar.---I dug on an east-facing slope near treeline. My pit location was a little above an avalanche that likely occurred on March 12 or 13. The snow depth was about 2 meters. I had a lot of trouble getting my probe through the knife-hard, 4 inch thick layer at 65 cm from the ground. It took about 15 minutes to chip off this layer while digging to be able to examine what was underneath. Glacial. I am not sure that anything could impact what is beneath the slab. With that said I would still avoid rocky slopes with inconsistent snow coverage.---Minor previous wind-drifting observed onto northerly slopes.