Sangre de Cristo

Snowpack

Jeremy Primmer · Jan 11, 2022 · Sangre de Cristo

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Weather

Clear skies and warm temps, no snow moving

Snowpack

There was fresh snow starting at 10000' but a layered, connected snowpack didn't start until 11,600', even then it was very shallow. Steep southerlies had melted off and other southerlies had a melt-freeze crust of varying thickness depending on the slope angle, sitting on moist to wet 1mm facets. Westerlies and northerlies had 10-20cm wind slabs sitting on 1mm facets. The snowpack was generally 20-50cm and deeper in wind loaded locations. I was surprised at how filled in the SW slope between Blanca Peak and Ellington Point. With the warm temps I saw a couple very small point releases below rockbands and on small ice formation detach.