Sangre de Cristo
SnowpackRich Rogers · Mar 10, 2024 · Sangre de Cristo
Weather
Spring-like weather throughout the day. Sunny, above freezing temps, one moderate up-valley gust mid-morning during the initial warming phase, but otherwise quite calm with a few light shifts in the breeze ATL mid afternoon. Beautiful day in the mountains.
Snowpack
Below treeline, surfaces were supportive on skis but in a few places stepping oout of skis resulted in postholes boot-top to knee deep. Refrozen surfaces near treeline were more supportive to boots than BTL but just as loud. As sun hit slopes and air temps rose, surfaces became less supportive. During the warmest part of the day, I could make a good snowball on all aspects, On most southerly aspects, BootPen was slightly deeper than the ball of my ankle and there were signs of free water running through surface snow just above the previous crust formed around 2/28. I dug on a low angle, Northeast, near treeline slope where I found non-propagating results from large column snowpack tests. Though, buried crust/facet combos near surface and basal layers still failed under moderate but resistant compression, the slab between is very hard and supportive. A dust layer is present a few inches under the surface but not as prominent as other ranges in the state. The low angle slopes I traveled on along Lr. S. Colony Lakes, stayed a little cooler but still could make a nice snowball on the surface. Steep, northerly, snow covered slopes of Broken Hand and Crestone Needle Pks. have ether a rough wind textured or smooth buffed appearance from dominate West and NW winds. Depth of snow varies quite a bit as I found areas of exposed grass and rocks just a few feet away from almost 5ft of snow at lake elevation.