Grand Mesa

Avalanche

Brandon Levy · Dec 27, 2022 · Grand Mesa

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Observation photo 1Observation photo 2

Weather

Red sky morning with broken cloud cover quickly transitioned under moderate wind from the southwest to overcast. There was an inital temperature inversion with 25F at Mesa at 0830 and closer to 30F at Skyway. Overall fairly warm and windy.

Snowpack

The weak layer from the mid-november drought period is still very weak and composed of large grained depth hoar chains. The overlying slab has gained a lot of strength and is now 1 finger to pencil hard. An ECT showed no propensity for propagation and I was not able to initiate a fracture in the weak layer. There was 6mm surface hoar which was widespread; however, the wind was beginning to lay it flat on Grand Mesa.

Avalanche

None observed