Grand Mesa
SnowpackJewel Campbell · Jan 6, 2025 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Beautiful snowy day with no wind. It was overcast all day and quite foggy by the late afternoon. Temps were in the 20s and the snow was hardest in the early afternoon, then tapered off to a consistent light snow for the rest of the day. It snowed about 3" while I was in the area.
Snowpack
The new snow was very low density and bonding well with the previous storm snow from the weekend. North slopes were the most stable, however I experienced widespread collapsing on east, south and west slopes. Snowpack tests followed a similar trend, with results in the loose facets (drought layer) from December, and more reactive on east, south and west slopes. The slab of somewhat firm newer snow from the last week and a half varied in thickness from 6"-12" and I fell through it often while skinning. There was an abrupt density change to the larger faceted grains under this slab and I had propagating results in this layer almost across the board. My extended column tests by aspect: Northwest: ECTN17 @64cm at christmas storm interface ECTP19 @63 at christmas storm inferface North: ECTX x2 Northeast: ECTP11 @38cm on depth hoar Southeast: ECTP5 @58cm at christmas storm interface