Grand Mesa
SnowpackJewel Campbell · Mar 4, 2025 · Grand Mesa
Weather
The day was foggy and damp, with low visibility and light snow until mid-afternoon when the clouds lifted and broke a bit. Temps were in the teens and there was a cold wind from the northwest and snow transport onto south and southeast slopes. All the trees were coated in rimed snow that had been blowing from the south all night. By the morning the wind had shifted north and stayed north. The storm was surging and tapering in intensity throughout the day.
Snowpack
The snow was around 120cm on north and east aspects with 10cm of new heavily rimed snow on the surface. The east slope I used to climb had a nearly impenetrable melt-freeze crust under the new snow, but was not present in shady aspects (such as where I dug my northwest and northeast snowpits). The Valentine's snow has settled into a slab about a foot thick resting on a melt-freeze crust from the early February warm-up. We have faceting snow above and below this crust and the facets under the crust produced propagating results in snowpack tests (20-28 hard taps in extended columns). Underneath the melt-freeze crust is a tall layer, about 80cms, of facets and depth hoar. My boot punched through to the ground everywhere I climbed out of my skis.