Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Dec 8, 2024 · Sawatch

Weather

Warm with light winds at ridgetop. Winds seemed to be increasing in the PM. Portions of our skin track, where we were breaking trail through thigh-deep snow on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, have melted out (southeast BTL).

Snowpack

The top 10 cms are composed of near surface facets except for in harder drifted areas. I found surface hoar (at the surface) surviving in northerly open meadows, but the crystals were mostly knocked over. The snowpack was about 70 cm deep near treeline on northerly-facing slopes. The upper 35 cm is snow from the Thanksgiving week storm that has now all faceted. Below this snow is the layer of facets that were buried on Nov 25. This layer is not as distinct as it once was and is now part of the basal layer conglomerate. This Nov 25 layer is also closer to four-finger hard which is harder than what it was when it was buried. The weakest portion of the basal snow seems to be larger faceted crystals, about 20 cm from the ground.