Sawatch

During the week, we travelled fairly extensively on low angled slopes within several miles of the Sangree hut. Wind exposed southerly/solar slopes were most supportable and skiable despite a wide variety of surfaces - breakable/supportable crusts, corn (on warm sunny days) and soft snow. Low angled skiable northerly/polar slopes above tree line were limited (due to thin snow cover), but some gullies contained soft powder. Skiing near tree line and below tree line on northerly aspects was difficult, inconsistent and somewhat dangerous due to frequently sinking to near the ground into the underlying weak facets and sometimes hitting stumps. Trail breaking in these areas was arduous. Other aspects below treeline were mostly a mix of supportable and unsupportable sun crusts. Total snow depths were 2-3 feet or less nearly every where we travelled, with many areas above tree line less than 6 inches. We got extensive collapsing on all aspects and elevations throughout the week. No tree shaking, rumbling collapses, but frequent audible collapses up to 50’ feet away or more. Several collapses on wind loaded slopes near tree line had visible surface cracking with a drop of 1cm.