Sawatch

Temps near freezing. Calm winds from the west. In and out light scattered clouds. No precipitation

In near treeline east-facing terrain, we found a shallow 30cm mostly faceted snowpack covered by a rain/temperature crust. Above treeline, the snowpack was a mix of entirely facet snow in wind-protected areas, wind-hardened knife-hard slabs over faceted snow in drifted areas, and wind-scored very thin faceted snowpack in exposed areas. In isolated gully features, we found slightly deeper drifts up to 45cm deep that contained a super stiff 10cm slab over a thin layer of facets, resting on top of a weakening (4-finger) mid-pack, with larger-grained facets at the bottom. This layering appeared patchy at best across the terrain and would require a significant additional load to become problematic.