Sawatch

Snowpack

Jeremy Primmer · Jan 14, 2022 · Sawatch

Weather

Clear skies in the morning with cloud cover growing in the afternoon, winds picked up around 2 with some light loading on easterlies.

Snowpack

I found a deeper snowpack and more coverage above treeline than around St. Elmo. Below the treeline, the snowpack varied from 50cm to 150cm in-depth. On southerlies, the snow surface was moist by 11 and refroze into a breakable melt-freeze crust by 3:30. I found large facets or depth hoar at the bottom of the snowpack with 4 finger to 1 finger hard slabs sitting on top of them. Near the treeline, the slabs stiffened to pencil hard slabs. The snowpack varied from 100cm to 300cm in depth on southeast facing aspects. I dug a pit in a shallow spot and was surprised to not get any propagating results in an ECT and got a 100/100 END in a PST on the depth hoar at the bottom of the snowpack. I saw 2 very small point releases on southeast facing terrain from yesterday.