Grand Mesa
AvalancheGeoff Guthrie · Jan 13, 2014 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Broken skies with the sun trying to poke out. Ridgeline wind gusts >35mph. Views to Elks, New York Mtns, and high Flat Tops obscured by snow socked in at ~7,000' level. It was even snowing on the Rifle Gap.
Snowpack
<TL, 8500' trailhead: HS 100cm, HN(past 7 days) 15-20cm, buried slab supportive of skier weight ~ 30cm down with trap doors here and there. Ski pole can be pushed to dirt with pressure. <TL, 10,300' point: wind-drifted HS 150cm. Wind slab at surface with sun-crust forming. Old snowmobile tracks poking through and frozen hard. Trap doors near usual willow suspects, but would only drop you down about 1'. HN(past 7 days) ~30cm. Leeward slopes filled in from scouring of NW-W-SW slopes the past few days. Suspect persistent slab (1F) buried ~60cm down. Only one whumph the entire tour, at lunch spot at top on a flat section of wind-blown fresh. No shooting cracks observed today; no reactivity.
Avalanche
None observed, not even in the steep gullies draining the mesas out here.