Sangre de Cristo
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Jan 5, 2016 · Sangre de Cristo
Weather
This morning cleared out on the east side of the range with clouds from the west stacked against the crest and just spilling over into upper basins. Temp. from South Colony SNOTEL (10800 ft) at 9 AM =24 degrees. Calm wind BTL and light wind near exposed ridges.
Snowpack
Below treeline on shady aspects the snow depth was between 30 to 60cms and faceted top to bottom. Low danger below treeline with no slab.---A thin 100-200ft elevation band near treeline has consistent coverage approaching 1 meter. The snowpack is fairly strong in this area with test results showing it would be hard to initiate a fracture in weak snow near the ground. ---Many above treeline start zones throughout the range are stripped to rock and most terrain features have been cross-loaded from west to east. Areas that are holding snow are areas where the snowpack is questionable and you would be most likely to trigger a small to large avalanche in one of these previously wind-loaded areas. Aspects that have received wind-drifted snow and aren't stripped are NE-E-SE.
Avalanche
No old or new avalanches were observed.