Sawatch

Snowpack

John Mackinnon ยท Dec 18, 2013

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Weather

CLR to SCT skies for past 48 hours. High clouds increasing on 20131218. Westerly winds have been light above TL both days with no blowing snow. Seasonably mild temps.

Snowpack

Watching the snowpack steadily weaken.... BTL snpx is shallow and completely faceted on W-N-E aspects. Sunny aspects have a mix of MF crusts on top of facets and some bare dirt. I did not observe anything resembling a "slab" on any BTL slopes. At higher elevations the snowpack was a mix of supportive wind crusts, facets, and bare ground. Buried slabs were not continuous and many seemed to be faceting out. However, the skiing was supportive and was halfway decent. I did observe some minor cracking on an ATL west facing slope where a stiff crust was overlying facets.