Sawatch
SnowpackJeremy Primmer · Feb 10, 2022 · Sawatch
Weather
Warm temps in the valley bottom, it felt like spring. Light winds at ridge tops with no transport noted
Snowpack
We were greeted with warm temperatures and a quickly melting snowpack at the trailhead. At the valley bottoms, a thick melt-freeze layer is forming on all aspects. Climbing higher, the melt-freeze crust remained very supportable on southerlies below the treeline. Under this crust, the snowpack is faceted with 1mm fist hard near-surface facets directly under the crust with slightly stiffer and smaller facets under that layer. We found some large percolation tubes in the upper portion of the snowpack. On shaded easterly slopes below the treeline, we found a completely faceted snowpack with the top 15cm cohesionless. Near the treeline, easterly facing slopes, the top of the snowpack was incredibly variable. We found thick supportable melt-freeze crusts on more exposed slopes sandwiching large reactive near surface facets. We got propagation results on isolation and moderate force in these layers in extended column tests. Other areas had pencil hard wind slabs that sandwiched smaller, less reactive near surface facets. We also found isolated softer, thicker wind slabs in small catches, but these only cracked underfoot. We did not find any Loose Dry avalanche concerns near the treeline in this location.