Sawatch
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Nov 7, 2023 · Sawatch
Weather
Warm, above freezing. Strong westerly winds picked up late morning into early afternoon.
Snowpack
Above treeline most snow surface textures are stiff. I could find weak, soft snow hiding in some wind-sheltered features, but I could walk in boots across most slopes regardless of which direction they faced. Above treeline, where snow remains on southerly and westerly slopes I found moist somewhat faceted Melt Forms. These slopes will stiffen into hard slick surfaces once frozen. Wind-protected westerly and east-facing slopes above treeline had somewhat continuous dense faceted (1 mm) snow-capped with inconsistent thin crusts. Northerly and northeasterly-facing slopes showed wind-erosion features. I sank only about halfway down in the one to two-foot-deep snowpack. At around 12,200' I found frozen ice columns and signs of previous meltwater in the bottom half of the snowpack. The deepest features below ridgelines that were loaded by southwest winds in the late October storm now look deeply textured from post-storm winds. ECTs did not propagate. The weakest softest snow lies near and below treeline, on northerly, mostly-shaded, wind-sheltered features. Here the snowpack is mostly unsupportive often topped with Surface Hoar resting on an eggshell crust.
Avalanche
None