Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Anrdrea Tupy · Nov 9, 2020 · Sawatch

Weather

Off an on snow showers today with less than an inch of accumulation during the day. Storm snow is up to about 16 inches. Ridgetop wind speeds estimated. Significant wind transport over the last few days.

Snowpack

We did not observe any significant cracking or collapsing on our tour. See the avalanche observations section and images for an avalanche that was triggered today. In areas protected from the wind the snow depth is about 30 to 40 cm. Wind loaded areas are double that. We dug on an east aspect near treeline and found 36 cm of snow with indistinct weaknesses in the storm snow but no basal facets. On a north-facing wind-loaded slope we found a snow depth of 75 cm with an 8 cm thick 1-2 mm layer of faceted crystals at the ground. An extended column test produced a propagating result on this basal layer.---We didn't get on any steep northerly slopes but I would suspect that the layer of facets is thicker on shadier, steeper slopes, especially gully features.---From what we found so far, the basal facets are on northwest, north, and northeast slopes at most elevations.