Sawatch

Snowpack

Ian Hoyer ยท Mar 15, 2016

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Weather

Typical spring storm day. Clouds swirled in and out all day, skies ranged from obscured to mostly clear. Significant wind drifting on any exposed area down to the valley bottom.

Snowpack

Around 10 inches of new snow. Drifted new snow depths ranged from 4" to ~14" below treeline. This snow was rapidly settling, lots of tree bombs were falling out of trees. This snow fell onto a stout crust on all slopes I observed (near and below treeline SE-E-NE facing). Snow was heavy and cohesive, even in wind-sheltered areas. Near treeline I got a little bit of cracking in the new snow as I descended a wind-loaded slope. In this area ~16" of wind drifted snow was breaking on a thin layer of facets above the stout crust. An ECT propagated at 16 taps on this layer. This faceted layer seems to make a troublesome recipe if snow keeps falling. Looking across the valley, south facing starting zones had been cross loaded, with bare ground on the windward sides.