Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Nov 29, 2022 · Sawatch
Weather
About eight inches of new snow with strong winds at ridgetop. The snow transport looked to effective even at high elevations on to easterly slopes. Cold.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is really soft and for the most part the new snow hasn't formed a cohesive slab over very weak faceted snow, which is the rest of the snowpack. Cracks were happening just around skis and not propagating. As I moved higher in elevation and got to wind-drifted slopes, I was able to remotely trigger small avalanches. The slab was cohesive from wind drifting and cracks propagated from 20 to 100 feet. I wasn't in terrain that is capable of producing avalanches bigger than D1.5 so it's hard to tell how connected the slab is, but it did seem like cracks were not propagating as far as they could just yet. Another foot on top of this lousy structure would do it, or maybe continued strong winds and hardening of the slab.