Grand Mesa

Avalanche

Rick (Grumpy) Smith · Jan 2, 2016 · Grand Mesa

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Weather

-3.6c at 1100 hrs, 30% cloud cover (mostly Cirrus), no wind

Snowpack

At Skyway Nordic Center (100 yds north, Lat 39.0436 Lon. 108.0667, Elev. 10,686) I did a ECT at 1100 hrs. The outside temp. was -3.6c, slope was facing SSE (120*), slope angle was 23*, cloud cover was about 30%, mostly Cirrus clouds. The pit was 85cm deep and there was 2-3mm of surface hoar. From 85-77cm easy fist, 77-63cm was 4f, 63-54cm easy 1f, 54-4 1f, 45-30cm 1f hard, 30-10cm P and the last 10 cm to ground appeared to be clustered melt forms—easy 4f. The tap test showed ECTN 10 at 77cm, ECTN 19 at 63cm and ECTN 27 at 30cm. A PST across the 30cm line showed a slight failure half way through with no propagation (Arr)

Avalanche

None observed in this area