Grand Mesa
AvalancheJewel Campbell · Jan 7, 2025 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Mostly sunny and chilly. Temps were in the teens and a constant breeze from the southeast was transporting snow from Monday and creating thin wind crusts on northeast, east, and southeast slopes.
Snowpack
I traveled mostly on northeast, east, and southeast slopes where the height of snow around 10,000' varied greatly. Open windy areas had 2' (50-60cm) of snow with vegetation visible above the snow and any slightly sheltered angles on the slopes had more than 3' (80-100cm) of snow. There was 3-5" of new snow from Monday (1/6) sitting on top of an interesting crust. In open windy areas the crust was knife-hard and breakable, however in areas with the slightest sheltering the crust was pencil or 1 finger hard and acted like a slab, collapsing dozens of feet across the slope. North slopes had a soft snowpack down to the ground. All the surface snow was cold and glittery.
Avalanche
I saw one loose dry D1 avalanche on a northeast face in a steep gully. It released at a cliff band likely Monday afternoon.