Grand Mesa
AvalancheBrandon Levy · Mar 3, 2022 · Grand Mesa
Weather
High thin clouds increased from scattered to broken. Southerly wind was consistent and despite occurring from the south, appeared to help it feel relatively cooler--or less hot.
Snowpack
There was a thin crust on all aspects in the sheltered terrain above the Cliffs avalanche area. Cracking occurred on every step. There were small near-surface faceted grains above the surface crust on northerly aspects. In locations where the late February storm snow was thicker I observed moderate to hard propagating results during extended column tests (ECTP 17 down 38 cms on FC size 2mm on a north-facing slope and ECTP 20 down 50cms on FC size 2mm on and east-facing slope). On slopes that tilted more westerly the slab was a bit thinner and there was terrain feature collapsing and easy propagating results (ECTP7 down 30cms on FC size 3mm on a west aspect). See upper snowpack profiles for more detail.
Avalanche
I observed avalanches on the north side cutbanks triggered intentionally by CDOT snow blowing operations--coded in GIS