Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Jan 1, 2020 · Sawatch

View on map

Weather

Snowed from 9 AM till about 1 PM today with a quick 2-4" of snow. Winds were calm below treeline but strong above treeline.

Snowpack

I traveled on east and southeast aspects below and near treeline. The same persistent structure exists though the snowpack is overall pretty weak and the slab has mostly faceted. This has been pretty well documented.---The most concerning thing I saw today was the upper snowpack structure. About 4 inches of new snow sits on a fragile crust with fist-hard facets below. I think the very low density snow from Saturday night or Sunday morning quickly faceted and then was capped with a thin crust on Tuesday. Another 10" of snow on top of this, and I would think that Storm Slab avalanches would be likely with this setup. We will have to watch this structure as it gets buried over the next few days.