Sawatch

Snowpack

Becs Hodgetts · Mar 19, 2020 · Sawatch

View on map

Weather

Light snow and strong gusts throughout tour. Winds seemed to switch from NE to S around 1130am.

Snowpack

Traveled below treeline on north to east slopes. HS 120cm above Big Slide start zones. Around 15cm of new snow sits on a 1cm pencil hard melt freeze crust. This rests on 0.5cm facets on another (thinner) 0.5cm decomposing melt freeze crust. On test slopes, new snow bonded well to the old snow surface and any sluffing observed was within the new snow on steep rolls. The new snow was not a cohesive slab. In below treeline areas exposed to the wind, only localized cracking around skis was observed.