Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Oct 30, 2019 · Sawatch

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Weather

Winds were moving snow in the Sawatch near Mt Elbert and Mt Massive but not much snow transport was observed near Fremont Pass and the Sawatch Range north of Turquoise Lake.

Snowpack

Quick trip to east-facing, near treeline terrain.--- Isolated cracking in the top 4 inches of recently wind-drifted snow. No other signs of instability were observed.---I dug on an east-facing slope and found a snow depth of 40 cm. The layer of newer storm snow is 20 to 25 cm thick and sits on a 2 cm faceting melt-freeze crust. Below the melt-freeze crust is 10 cm of small facets. An extended column test did not show any propagation, which was expected as there is really no slab.---Overall the snowpack is still really shallow. Persistent slab avalanche concerns are isolated to upper-elevation northerly and east-facing slopes where wind has previously drifted snow.