Grand Mesa
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Mar 21, 2016 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Cloudy and breezy. Not as warm as I thought it might be. Wind was helping to keep the snow surface cool.
Snowpack
Average HS 175 in the forests across the top of the Mesa. Other areas with a westerly or southerly aspect were melting out, especially on sunny road cuts and steep, sunny slopes. HS at Island Lake only about 50 cms with a spring snowpack comprised of P+-K hard re-frozen melt forms, top to bottom. Lots of talus poking through here, and the uppermost, sunniest parts of the slope were bare ground. The Rim is still holding a lot of snow. Average HS around a meter. 64" in the weather plot. The snow surface was three or four cms of rounding facets over a hard crust. Some loading of the upper startzones was evident from this weekend's windy conditions, but limited to small, cross-loaded pockets. Not a lot of evidence of melting on shady aspects. Snow depth has been holding steady at around 60" in the weather plot since early February. Notably, no perc columns in my profile, and dry snow from just below the surface to the ground. Still a fairly wintry snowpack, although quite stable and well consolidated. Near-surface layers could potentially pose a problem if overloaded.
Avalanche
No avalanches observed.