Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Dec 15, 2021 · Sawatch
Weather
Measured 3 inches of new snow in the parking lot. About 4 inches near treeline. Winds weren't loading below treeline slopes where we were. It was hard to tell what was going on above with limited vis.
Snowpack
We traveled on northeast to east facing slopes mostly below treeline. We spent enough time near treeline to trigger a nice whumpf and get really cold. It didn't take long. Below treeline is mostly soft snow with recent fist to four-finger hard snow on top of fist-hard facets. The four-finger hard snow from last weeks storm was just cohesive enough to cause small collapses about 10 to 20 feet wide. This happened fairly regularly on east and northeast-facing slopes. Southeast slopes below treeline were quiet. Even though we got numerous collapses we couldn't trigger an avalanche on small ~35 degree slopes. Once we got near treeline the slab was much more connected across terrain and stiffer, therefore communicating larger fractures with larger collapses observed. Again this was on east and northeast-facing slopes. See attached snowpits for details from two whumpf locations. The weakest snow is faceted snow beneath last weeks storm snow and not right at the ground. We did not find buried surface hoar in our travels.