Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Feb 19, 2022 · Sawatch

Weather

Breezy at ridgetop in the morning with calm winds by afternoon. No snow moving. Clear and very warm especially below treeline in the afternoon.

Snowpack

I was searching for our slab, facet combo but didn't have much luck. The alpine is really wind-hammered and it would take a really big load to overcome the bullet proof surfaces. That is if near surface facets are even buried on those slopes. Most northerly slopes are like this and south-facing slopes are seeing a lot of warming, baking down any new snow. The exception to the wind-jacked above treeline slopes is east and southeast facing. High-elevation east-facing slopes that are somewhat protected have continuous coverage and look to hold more of a consistent slab. East-facing slopes protected by a cornice are particularly suspect. I dug on a steep south-facing slopes and found a very thin snowpack (about 90 cm) in the start zone. There was just a couple inch thick slab on top of a faceted pack. A few hundred feet down the snow surface was a little moist snow on top of a supportable crust. I traveled on north and northwest below treeline and the snowpack was also thin and mostly faceted. Very weak upper snpx but no sluffing observed. In places the surface was a thin but hard wind skin. I continued on to an east-facing near treeline slope, still looking for the slab, but again didn't find it. Near treeline east-facing was a thin wind crust on top of extremely weak facets.