Sawatch
SnowpackJeremy Primmer, Ben Pritchett · Nov 19, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Broken cloud cover trending to overcast as a small squall rolled in from the West. Moderate wind gusts out of the west but little to no transport noted.
Snowpack
The snow coverage around Cottonwood Pass is significantly less than the northern parts of the Sawatch. Most places lacked enough snow for efficient travel. We headed north from the pass along the ridge. Near the ridge top the wind slabs have completely faceted out. Dropping off the ridge we found a spot where the wind slabs were still stiffer. We dug into a wind-loaded east aspect above treeline and found a one-finger hard slab of lightly faceted 0.3mm rounds sitting on top of fist hard 2mm near-surface facets buried on November 10th. We got a propagating result with moderate force on this interface doing an ECT. Below this, the snow from November 3rd and the storms from before Halloween are faceted, but the grains are only 1mm and don’t have striations. Wrapping around to a northeast aspect, we found a shallower, more faceted snowpack. Digging in a cross-loaded feature, we found 55cm of snow with fist hard facets sitting on top of four finger hard facets on top of fist hard 2-3 mm facets with clear striations and decomposing crusts between the layers. We got a propagating result with moderate force, failing just above the advanced facets at the bottom of the snowpack. Around rocks where the snowpack is shallower, the basal facets are even more advanced. Westerlies and Southerlies are holding hardly any snow.