Sawatch
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · May 9, 2016 · Sangre de Cristo
Weather
Skies were mostly obscured with times of broken cloud and some sun. Winds were strong out of the northwest backing to west around noon. Warm temperatures, estimate of low 30s at 12k ft. Estimate of new snow at 12k ft is 4".
Snowpack
The wind is moving moderate amounts of snow and forming wind slabs down slope and lee of terrain features. Overall the dense slabs are bonded reasonably well to the old snow surface with minimal cracking underfoot. One small Wind Slab avalanche was intentionally triggered on a steep 40 degree, east-facing terrain features. The strong winds led to irregular loading patterns and uneven distribution of wind-deposited snow.---Below 11500 ft the snowpack is unsupportable and collapsing. Collapsing occurred on a layer of wet facets approximately 18 inches down from the surface.