Sawatch
SnowpackBo Torrey · Mar 26, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Partly cloudy skies in the am with calm winds. Clouds filtered in and light snow began around noon followed by in and out clouds, breaks of sunshine, and then more snow. S1+ at times and bouts of graupel.
Snowpack
10-15 cm of new snow. Thin 5-10 cm slabs of wind-drifted snow blanketed east and northeast facing slopes above treeline. Goal of today was to look at overall snowpack depth in the area and look at the persistent slab problem in a thinner snowpack area. The Buckskin Joe Snotel site is the lowest in the Sawatch range with 7.5" of SWE and 33" on the ground. On northeast facing slopes near treeline I found an average snowpack depth of 120-140cm (4 to 4.5 feet deep) The snowpack has a thick hard slab above a relatively thin layer of soft faceted snow. On slopes above treeline the snowpack depth was much more variable due to wind effect. I dug on a northeast facing slope above treeline and found a 90cm deep snowpack. Again, with a 2 foot thick hard slab over soft facets. In all of my snowpits today I has propagating failures on the facets and depth hoar near the ground. Upper elevation west facing slopes were nearly bare in this area from strong winds stripping the windward-facing slopes.