Sangre de Cristo

Cold with high in the low teens. Moderate wind with strong gusts, very strong gusts above treeline, good amount of blowing snow, even below treeline in wind exposed areas. The day started blue bird but clouds came in from the south west and by 2pm the sky was overcast but without precipitation.

Below treeline the snowpack was mostly weak. The new snow didn't seem to bond super well with the old surface but the new snow hasn't formed cohesive slabs. Near treeline remained mostly the same in the wind protected trees that I traveled in until I reached the wind affected ridge around 11,800ft. I traveled along the NE facing side of this ridge and in most places there was 8-12inches of wind deposited new snow on top of a hard slab on top of weak snow. In some areas this slab was thin and I pushed straight through (typically shallower areas) and others it was hard and supportable (typically closer to ridge top) but at times the skinning became punchy, where the hard slab was initially supportable and then would break after fully weighting a ski. Once I felt that structure under foot within a few steps I would get a collapse and/or cracking. This happened 3 separate times along the ridgeline.