Sawatch
SnowpackSpencer Herford · Dec 8, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Started the day with most of the group commenting how cold it felt. Mostly overcast with brief periods of sun and then fog. Light west winds. No snow transport observed, but evidence of previous transport. S-1 for some short spurts, picking up to S1 around 2pm when we exited the field.
Snowpack
Skinning along the road near the powerline we found a nice wind drifted area begging to be jumped on. I was able to get shooting cracks when I stepped with moderate force, the main crack went approx 50 feet away. Along this crack it initially failed on the 12/6 interface, but did step down about 30cm towards the end. Some of our guides did a rescue course in the area a few days prior and reported widespread surface hoar formations, so we did a snow pit near the OMP sign in the area that drifts in to see what had happened to that since. Sure enough that SH was buried about 6cm down and was largely intact and easy to see. Most crystals were in the 6mm range. This is an area that sees a lot of wind, so I was surprised to see it so well preserved with a 4f slab above it. Tests failed easily on this layer (CT5 SC and ECTN 4) but the slab was still weak resting above in that particular spot. Below was a mostly fist hard snowpack with one 4f MFc mid pack. Facets near the ground were beginning to cup and build striations, 3mm avg. Column tests also failed with more force closer to the ground (CT 26 SC @ 21cm, ECTN23 @ 25cm). HS58cm. As we toured above the pit the snowpack had variability from fully faceted and unsupported to pencil hard.