Grand Mesa

Snowpack

Hunker/ Logan · Feb 7, 2011 · Grand Mesa

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Weather

OBS, S1, 21F, light wind from NE

Snowpack

The lower faceted snowpack has gained some strength from the last visit 2+ weeks ago. Storm snow of 14" is low density without slab formation. With a compression test there was MODERATE failure of the storm snow layer at the interface of a weak surface hoar/faceted layer. Chance of failure of this weak layer with an additonal 12" on the storm board. It is likely that a large storm load will step down to failure on the ground. For the remainder of this current storm additional surface sluffing is likely without crossing the highway.