Sawatch
SnowpackDan Wiener · Feb 15, 2013 · Sawatch
Weather
Light snow falling on skin up. Clouds broke to North where we could see clear blue sky but light snow kept falling on the ridge. Wind was from the NW and there was visible blowing snow. Evidence of wind loading as I looked around on top of the ridge. Wind was gusty and inconsistent.
Snowpack
The snowpack varied quite a bit depending on the aspect. I did probe tests everywhere I went and got these results: The most packed and wind loaded aspect was NE while above the tree line anything from S to NW was scoured and very wind affected. On the NE aspects the wind slabs were so dense I could jumped and did not feel any give at all. Potential for a slide ripping big. Once we got down into the trees there was much less wind affected and the layer of snow on top was not a cohesive slab. There was a soft slab evident beneath the top layer of about 1.5 ft of soft snow. Below the soft slab that snowpack seemed to give way to DH.