Grand Mesa

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Mar 6, 2019 · Grand Mesa

Weather

Rain was falling up to about 9000 feet. Above that, heavily rimed snow fell throughout the trip. Significant strong southwest winds were blowing moderate .amounts of snow , especially near Skyway and the Nordic Ski Area

Snowpack

I was able to dig multiple shallow pits, down about 1.5 meters from the surface on several aspects, targeting the March 1-4 storm snow and old surface interface. The overall snowdepth was generally 250-290 cm. The March 3/1 interface is about 60 cm from the surface and is easily identified by the 2cm crust that had formed late February. No results were seen in Extended column tests on this layer. Moderate propagating extended column test results were seen on a graupel layer about 20 cm from the surface. The graupel must have been from late in the 3/1-4 storm, 10 cm below the crust that formed on 3/5