Grand Mesa
SnowpackJewel Campbell · Feb 5, 2024 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Air was chilly with a light wind from the southwest, temps in the 20s all morning and rose above freezing by noon. Scattered clouds in the morning and bright sunshine but the mid to late afternoon became overcast.
Snowpack
About 45cm of storm snow was sitting on a hard melt-freeze crust on south slopes. This interface showed propagation potential. Surface forms had faceted overnight but were rapidly warming as the day went on. The total height of snow was 120-140cm and no collapsing or cracking was observed. North slopes had similar snow totals from the storm with surface forms of whole stellar dendrites. The new snow rested on a thick layer of firm, near-surface facets and the concerning layer was further down in the snowpack at about 60cm from the ground where a sudden size and density change in facet layers raised a red flag. More loading with the next storm could certainly bring some action from this interface. Currently it did not show much potential for propagation. Despite a widespread layer of buried surface hoar on the Grand Mesa, it did not seem to be present in this area. By late morning small wet point-release sluffs were starting. By early afternoon snow was sticking to skis and a crust was forming on south aspects.