Sawatch

Snowpack

Scott Toepfer ยท May 19, 2013

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Weather

It was back to winter today. Cold and blustery with a few inches of new snow. Convective snow shower and then partial clearing followed by convective snow shower and then partial clearing and repeat. At times visibility was 30 to 50 feet. Snowed from 1 to 3 inches today. Some soft wind slab forming in northerly aspect couloirs 3-6 inches thick.

Snowpack

We traveled on west to north to east aspects. From noon on, even with the cloud cover, cool NW winds & temperatures, the snowpack was becoming moist. The crust was disappearing near and below treeline on both east and west aspects fairly early, even with the cloud cover and cooler temperatures. North aspects staying a bit more wintery. Minimal sun above treeline was keeping the N aspects cold. Above treeline N aspect crust was still strong at 1 PM.