Sawatch

Snowpack

Spencer Herford · Jan 1, 2023 · Sawatch

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Weather

S1 with period of S2 in the early afternoon. Moderate temps, light to moderate SW winds through the day. Sky was OVC all day.

Snowpack

Widespread 3mm rain crust in the upper snowpack, would have occurred sometime early morning 12/31. Also found the crust in the resort, and another observer reported similar in Snowstake Area. Some samples we looked at showed near surface facet growth already in progress. Had a few collapses while touring, but mostly quiet. An ECT failed with propagation with hard force on the 12/27 interface, 66cm up from the ground. A few more taps failed in the basal weak layers about 30cm up. The middle of the snowpack is more supportable than in a previous observation I made a week prior in the same area.