Sawatch

Snowpack

john morrone · May 9, 2019 · Sawatch

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Weather

ATL (12,500'), east facing, upper halfmon drainage variable sun and cloud, minimal precip, ight winds

Snowpack

overnight freezes at 11,000+. east facing . Nil ski pen, tricky skinning on steeps with ski crampons at 7 AM. boot pen ankle to mid shin, with variable crust breakability at 12,600+ east very clean white surface layer thought to be may 1 storm snow starting to MF on top. quick inspection of snow in bootpack holes showed may 1 storm snow top consolidated into a 5-8 cm MF crust, with 1-2cm dry storm snow beneath. Old dirty MF crust of 2-4 cm below the storm snow, with considerable thckness of moist grains below. ski descents on W on quite firm, supportive crusts, but N-NW had breakable crust over several inches of storm snow. all crusts failing by 11AM, with significant woomphing on low angle terrain. may 1 storm not yet transformed to spring MF or corns snow yet. overnight freezes not penetrating into deeper moist layers