Sawatch

Snowpack

On Tu-Th (this week) I had the opportunity to ski in Buckeye Gulch below Buckeye Peak in the Sawatch zone just North and East of Leadville. I had been following your reports and was concerned about "deep" instabilities due to the complex snowpack that you've described this year. We dug several snow pits on different pitches of both windward and lee slopes. In particular the lee slopes revealed a surface layer of about 6-8" of unconsolidated new snow probably wind transported from last week's storm sitting on a thin ice lense