Grand Mesa
AvalancheBrandon Levy · Mar 26, 2022 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Hot with a slight breeze from the west / southwest keeping it bearable. There were FEW to SCATTERED clouds and the temperatures were in the 40's when I was collecting observations
Snowpack
There was a 4cm crust in terrain with a sky view when I arrived near the Skyway weather station this morning around 10 AM. The crust gave way to mush quickly though with the top inch or so becoming melt forms after another hour. The mid-February dry spell faceted crystals have gotten moist or wet on all aspects here below treeline at 10600'. I performed several extended column tests on various aspects near the weather station. (ECTX X2 on North) (ECTX on East) and (ECTP 22 down 68 cms on 2mm rounding FC on West). The faceted grains were generally four-finger hard and were dry to moist on north, east, and west aspects. The snow on the south-facing slopes above SH65 at Island Lake avalanche area is melting back into the large anchors with no loose wet activity observed.
Avalanche
There was one small D1 loose wet avalanche out of the Flatiron avalanche path that reached the ditch on SH 133 (McClure Pass) on my way back to the Roaring Fork Valley. Several smaller wet loose avalanches above the road were also observed on McClure.