Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg, Andrew McWilliams · Apr 5, 2023 · Sawatch
Weather
Cold with convective snow squalls. It would snow for ten minutes and there would be a short period of filtered sunshine. It was windy during the squalls but we didn't see much evidence of loading. Visibility was poor, so maybe that's why we didn't see any loading. Only about an inch or two of new snow from this last storm. The new snow sits on dust and depending on aspect, a dust crust.
Snowpack
As mentioned above, .5 mm facets on a thick melt-freeze crust buried 40 cm from the surface is the main layer of concern on east through south-facing slopes. We got surprisingly easy results in an ECT on a south-facing near treeline slope. This was even with a half-inch thick melt-freeze crust near the surface. On northerly slopes, there were fewer concerning persistent weak layers in the upper snowpack. The basal layers are the main layer of concern on northerly slopes. The facets and depth hoar near the ground were fist-hard (soft) in places where we dug. North-facing slopes are much deeper near ridgetop and more filled in than normal for this area with the recent southwest winds. We found over 2 meters of snow near ridgetop on north-facing slopes. Descending down from the ridge the snow depth on north-facing slopes decreased and the snowpack became much softer and weaker. There is still very weak snow near the ground in this area and with a big load, or a trigger from a shallow spot, these basal layers are still in play.