Sangre de Cristo

Avalanche

Mike Bean · Mar 21, 2014 · Sangre de Cristo

Weather

Partly cloudy overnight, clear and sunny during the day. Relatively warm.

Snowpack

Anything with full-day shade was light, dry, and wintery on all aspects and elevations even below treeline. SE-W aspects mostly dry below 12,000', thin cover above. N aspects varied greatly over very short distances. A couple pits dug on a N aspect at ~11,800' were approaching 2m deep and both featured a soft slab of about 25cm on top of an ice crust (failed at ECT25, no propagation) on top of another meter of soft slab on top of ~50cm of small (<1mm) facets. At about 12,000' on a N aspect there was only a thin layer of windboard (1-3cm) on top of ~30cm of light consistent unconsolidated snow on top of rocks. S and SW aspects from 12,600' up to 14,000' are transitioning to spring quickly, Areas near rocks were weaker and resulted in postholing and wallowing, more open sections were generally consistent, supportive, and fully spring-like. Higher elevations are transitioning more slowly.

Avalanche

None observed on any aspect or elevation.