Sawatch

Snowpack

Jeremy Primmer · Jan 28, 2022 · Sawatch

Weather

Warmed up quickly from the mornings cold temp. Light Breeze.

Snowpack

I headed up Denny Creek and found very weak snow surfaces. Near the treeline and below, I ski cut some steep roll over to try and create a loose dry avalanche, and I created a couple of very small ones, but they did not want to entrain additional snow. I dug a pit on a northeast slope below the treeline and found the top 30cm is starting to facet, and there is a barely discernible melt-freeze crust. As I wrapped around to east and southeast facing aspects, I found an additional melt-freeze crust, and they became more robust, and the facets sandwiched between them became larger. Near the treeline, I found some very thin wind slabs, and while they are relatively harmless right now to riders, they propagated very easily on near-surface facets giving us some clues to what will happen during the next storm.