Grand Mesa

Avalanche

Brandon Levy · Dec 5, 2022 · Grand Mesa

Weather

Dark overcast skies with sustained southwest wind on Grand Mesa this morning. There was atrace of large grained graupel and the temperature was relativley warm although the wind made it feel cooler.

Snowpack

I observed poor snowpack structure on north and west-facing slopes today at 10600' on Grand Mesa. On north-facing slopes there is a 30 to 35 cms spongy slab of stronger snow composed of rounded grains, decomposing precipitation particles, and graupel. Below that stronger snow is very weak snow composed of chained depth hoar. As I moved from a west-facing slope onto a north-facing piece of terrain where I dug a snow profile, I felt a collpase of the snowpack on the terrain feature scale. Despite that collpase, an extended column test produced a propagating result (ECTP11 down 33cms on DH size 4-6mm). On slopes that face more westerly the overlying slab is thinner--ony about 15cms where I dug. The weak layer is still present on those west-facing slopes as well and steeper, more exposed west-facing terrain looks wind blasted/pressed.

Avalanche

No new slab avalanches observed