Sawatch

Snowpack

Becs Hodgetts · Apr 18, 2020 · Sawatch

View on map

Weather

Intermittent sun and snow showers. No accumulation.

Snowpack

At study plot, Thrudays 12+ inches settled rapidly to 3/0.7"HN/SWE. In Lake B path, I found highly variable snowdepth across the start zones. Wind Loaded areas we 3m+ deep, south facing ribs only 30cm deep. These areas had transitioned to a spring snowpack with melt forms throughout. More north slopes were around 150cm deep with a surface 1cm thick crust from yesterdays warm temps sitting in 15cm of dry snow from Thursdays storm. This rests on a 10cm thick melt freeze crust. The rest of the snowpack consisted of rounding facets and depth hoar. No evidence of water reaching these layers.