Sawatch
SnowpackIan Hoyer Becs Hodgetts ยท Mar 17, 2016
Weather
Very gusty winds out of the west. Winds would pick up and blow a lot of snow around and then calm down for a couple minutes. Sky went from overcast to partly cloud and back a number of times, skies were clearing as we left in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Extremely variable new snow depth near and below treeline. Lots of wind drifting even down low. Large wind whales in pretty dense timber. A number of 2-3 ft deep drifts below treeline. Remarkably, the snow didn't feel all that slabby. It got dense once a little sun hit it, but only got a tiny bit of cracking. In a pit on a SE aspect near treeline, the new snow was sitting on a thin layer of facets above a stout crust. Percolation columns had reached the ground. An Extended Column Test propagated at 11 taps on the thin facet layer under the new snow.