Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Feb 15, 2020 · Sawatch
Weather
Very windy far down off of ridgelines. Very little effective wind loading observed. Skies were clear in the morning and overcast by afternoon.
Snowpack
Surface crusts exist on southerly slopes. Northerly and east facing slopes still have dry snow on the surface. A snowpit on a below-treeline (upper end of BTL) east-facing slope had a height of snow of 117 cm. Slab from last storm was 25 cm thick and sits on faceted snow. No buried crust observed. I got a propagating result on 16 taps in an extended column test. This result was on facets beneath the recent storm snow. Underneath this layer was faceted snow and then 2 to 4 mm depth hoar near the ground. The faceted snow and depth hoar was fairly uniform in hardness.--- Overall the slab is thin and in many places below treeline the snowpack is barely supportable to skis. This snowpack saw a small load with our last storm relative to areas to the north.