Sawatch

Snowpack

The snow surface is stiff and supportive sastrugi and hard wind slabs nearly everywhere from recent winds, warm temperatures and strong solar radiation. The surface did not get moist above 11,000' today. Areas that are not scoured to bare ground near and above treeline harbor wind slabs 1-2' thick that overlie a thin layer of facets. A very stiff mid-pack caps weak basal facets and depth hoar. Neither the wind slabs nor the persistent hard slabs in the mid-pack produced positive extended column test results.