Sawatch
SnowpackCameron Millard · Dec 28, 2012 · Aspen
Weather
Gusty winds with light snow; low-visibility made it hard to determine if significant loading was happening - not much loading observed on the ridge.
Snowpack
Pits were dug on three aspects. The North aspect had very large facets building chains at the bottom of the snowpack - the facets were about 4-6 mm and about 5 inches deep. The snowpack was only a meter deep on the north aspect, and varied from 1 meter to .5 meters on the south aspect. Lots of cracking,shooting cracks, and collapsing of the snowpack. The snowpack itself seemed to comprise of a single, dense, slab-like layer with some consolidation happening but quite strong throughout. However, the shallowness was concerning and it was very easy to collapse the snowpack at the ground. The strength of the slab layer broke on an old faceted layer with CT18, and ECT tests showed negative propagation. We felt that the strength of the snowpack was deceiving as it really was extremely shallow.