Sawatch

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Bo Torrery · Feb 26, 2021 · Sawatch

Weather

Winds increased throughout the day with blowing snow in the late afternoon. It didn't look like the wind was effectively loading slopes.

Snowpack

Below treeline the snowpack was only about a meter deep, though we did find some deeper spots at the upper end of this elevation band. Overall the snowpack is still thin below treeline. Even with the shallow snowpack and thinner slabs, results were still hard in extended column tests (ECT). The same results were found near treeline where the snowpack was deeper. The height of snow was about 130 to 150 cm near treeline. In one ECT a crack propagated in 1 mm facets that were buried in January. This was mid-pack about 60 cm from the ground. Other tests failed on 2 mm facets above the depth hoar at about 30 to 40 cm from the ground.---For surface conditions we found a very hard surface in wind-exposed areas. In shady, sheltered areas the surface is faceting. On an east-facing slope there were two crusts near the surface with a faceted layer sandwiched in between. A future storm slab could be quite reactive on these shady and east-facing near-treeline slopes.---The only shooting cracks we experienced were shallow and where the hard wind-drifted slab failed on faceted snow about 6 to 8 inches from the surface.