Sangre de Cristo

Snowpack

Anonymous · Apr 8, 2011 · Sangre de Cristo

Weather

Extreme winds with constant flow - difficult to attain direction due to flow through valley and coulior- mostly N wind in the 20-30 mph range with gusts strong enough to have to brace to keep from being blown over (60+ mph). Winds in the Willow valley out of the W. Movement of grauple felt like riding a motorcycle at highway speed in the rain. No current precip.

Snowpack

I did not dig a pit, but did multiple small test w/ surface wind slab and glove/ski/pole. The surface wind slab varied from none to 50cm in thickness and was generally a cohesive layer. I isolated a block on several occasions using a ski pole, and could not get the windslab to slide using glove pressure. When I pulled it free it did not break in a planar manner. The layer underneath was firm and dirty ( impossible to tell crystals with wind). I did not test, but would estimate the windslab as 4 finger hard and the layer beneath as pencil. I was able to break through this layer with a ski pole after multiple poundings and found the snow beneath to be supportive, non depth hoar. Level of snow was near 11,600, with little snow below that point. Snowdepth outside the couloir was between 0-50 cm.