Sawatch
SnowpackAndrea Tupy · Jan 3, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Partly sunny with light northerly winds. The clouds started to build around 2:45 and it started to lightly snow. Winds picked up enough to blow snow off of trees below tree line and I observed obvious snow transport on the ridgeline above tree line. By 3:30 it was snowing S1 and the sky was obscured.
Snowpack
All observations were below tree line. Skinning across southeast facing slopes at 11,200' the snow was beginning to become sun affected in open areas with bare ground visible near trees. On southeast, northeast and east aspects there was an intermittently supportive crust approximately 15 cm down from the surface that was only supportive in clearings. Otherwise the snow was loose, unsupportive and difficult to ski. On east and northeast aspects 15 cm (fist hard) down there was a 15 cm layer of 4F over 40 cm of weak facets and depth hoar. ECT failures occurred at 38 cm: ECTP9 on northeast and ECTP12 on east. Localized cracking was only apparent on NE and it was not widespread.