Sangre de Cristo
SnowpackRich Rogers · Dec 4, 2024 · Sangre de Cristo
Weather
Mostly clear skies, calm-light Westerly winds, cool in the shade and warm in the sun.
Snowpack
I found both Wind Slab and Persistent Slab structures when I dug on a 22º slope on a North aspect at 11,300ft. A soft, weak layer of recent storm snow sits under the surface between two stronger layers. This layer failed easily under compression and was resistant during propagation tests. Propagation would arrest less than halfway across the large column, then with 2-3 additional loading steps, would continue across the column. This occurred twice. The deeper, thicker(~80cm) pencil hard slab rests on decomposing Oct. snow, crust/facet combo near the ground. This persistent layer took heavy loading steps to fail under compression but was unreactive-stubborn during propagation and deep tap tests. Minor cracking and collapsing occurred in the wind packed surfaces near treeline.