Sangre de Cristo

Mostly sunny with temps just below freezing. Wind was from the West starting out calm and increasing to strong by mid afternoon.

Below approx 9,500ft there was only small patches of snow in wind and sun protected areas. Above this the snowpack was mostly a firm supportable wind hardened slab over a faceted snowpack. From 9,500 to treeline the snowpack stayed pretty consistent in character but increased in thickness as elevation increased. The strength of these slabs was evident as most of the time it supported my weight, even when booting. In the deeper near treeline areas you often found evidence of multiple different wind hardened slabs that had started to facet before another wind hardened slab was added on top. Additionally, in many areas near treeline the snowpack was topped with up to 6cm of freshly drifted soft snow.