Grand Mesa
SnowpackBrandon Levy · Nov 27, 2023 · Grand Mesa
Weather
It was a cold, clear and relatively calm morning at Skyway. The temperature warmed slightly from the single digits to the teens by mid-morning and there was an occasional northerly breeze.
Snowpack
The snow depth was around 85cms or a little over 2.5' on the north-facing slopes near the Cliffs avalanche area on the north side of the Grand Mesa. There are two distinct weak layers in the snowpack: the depth hoar consisting of snow left on the ground from October and a layer of large grained surface hoar buried byt the most recent storm around the 24th of November. Extended column tests propagated with easy and moderate taps from the wrist and elbow on these two layers (ECTP5 down 26 cms on the surface hoar and ECTP11 down 49 cms on the depth hoar). The surface hoar layer was roughly 2 cm thick and consisted of large crystals between 1 cm and 1.5 cm. The slab components seemed to be gaining resistance from slow settlement. I observed settlement cones on the nearby vegetation.