Sawatch

Snowpack

Rich Rogers Drew Gibson · Mar 13, 2024 · Sawatch

Weather

Mixed bag. Hot and muggy at the trailhead, warm and muggy at 11.5k. Periods of heavy snowfall (S2) would be followed by spots of blue sky and intense sun. When the sun was out, it was hot at upper elevations. During the periods of snowfall, we saw everything from stellars, graupel, and rimed stellars, not surprising with the temperatures. Winds were light from the south with gusts from the southeast.

Snowpack

In the upper basin, we found a little more than 1m of snow in areas that were not wind-affected. Above 11,800ft depths were 130cm-190cm. There is great variability in depth here due to wind loading/stripping and we were unable to determine the distribution due to the new snow and lack of wind. Southerly aspects at upper elevations had a thin but pronounced sun-affected layer, but it was easily breakable. I would estimate that on steeper slopes (i.e. with greater angle to the sun) this crust could be better developed. On an ENE slope near 11,800ft that had no previous tracks (from what I could tell), the snowpack was a little over a meter deep and did not show much strength, with newer, denser snow over mostly weak snow. During the day there were periods of snowfall around 2cm an hour and the precip was a mix of graupel and new snow. The sun would peak out and when it did, it was downright hot. The surface snow was immediately affected by the sun and you could make a snowball easily out of previously cold dry snow. The new snow was bonding well to old surfaces and even during intense sun no signs of shedding were seen. The distribution of the early February weak layer is tricky in this area. It is there, but the markers of its existence are not as glaring as other places in the Sawatch. Our test pits showed a mostly weak snowpack in this area which is a stark contrast to recent observations in the Hancock Pass area.