Sangre de Cristo

There was highly variable snow depth. Outside of the heavily cross loaded slopes the snowpack was a mix of dry ground/shallow snowpack and deeper pockets of protected terrain. These pockets of deeper snow varied from 6in near the trailhead to 2ft at treeline. In cross loaded/heavily loaded features the snowpack was deeper, I measured up to 1.5 meters deep snow. These deeper previously loaded features remained fairly firm throughout, requiring significant effort to get my probe all the way into. There was a 4" average melt freeze temperature crust throughout all the terrain. On any terrain with sun this quickly became wet while on on North to East facing aspects that were protected from the sun were moist. I got a few very small isolated collapses where this crust failed on top of weaker snow but they did not propagate more than a few feet with how variable the snow coverage was.

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.

West and South facing terrain remained thin and wind effected with mostly soft snow. There is beginning to be uniform ground coverage on these aspects from about 10,500' till treeline but not enough to bury the larger rocks and sticks that are in the area, making skinning/riding hazardous. North and East facing terrain had mostly weak snowpacks. On top of ridges the snow would often be wind buffed to a supportable slab and as you headed downslope on the snow would generally quickly turn into soft weak snow. The new snow from late last week didn't seem to be forming cohesive slabs in most places however in the rare area just below ridgelines in near treeline terrain I found that the wind had caused the new snow to form a breakable 4-6" slab over top of the new snow. These surface slabs were very reactive, with lots of cracking and ECT/CT results on isolation, however they didn't spread out heavily over the terrain and were not common to find (I traveled on leeward sides most of the day and only found 2 areas with these conditions). I dug a pit in one of these areas and found that the hard slab over softer snow seemed to repeat down into the snowpack for about 40cm, until it got to the buried really hard thick slab formed earlier in the season from the gale force winds earlier in the season. I was able to get propagating ECT results on the deepest of these soft layers and got a collapse moving through similar terrain. These areas are most likely to be found near treeline in North to East facing terrain and caution should be used if encountered however this snow structure was and hard to find with most of the terrain was either supportably hard or super soft.

The snowpack is mostly new snow on top of facets. On east facing terrain I found evidence of wind slabs forming in many areas however they were often very thin and weak. I got cracking in one place where this slab was approximately 15cm thick. The slab itself was still very soft and unsupportable and this only happened on one slope even though I traveled on similar slopes to it throughout the day. I was able to get collapsing twice on ESE facing terrain that was exposed to the sun. I dug a pit nearby and it appeared as though these areas had a solar/temperature crust from the before the storm buried that I was able to get propagating ECT results on. With the cold temperatures I imagine that the few places where these crusts were found will quickly facet away. The wind was extremely strong, likely too strong to be forming new wind slabs

Almost entirely faceted snowpack. West and south facing slopes were mostly dry or patchy snow coverage due to wind and solar effects. North to East facing BTL to NTL slopes contained 6-18" of snow. In a few spots (especially as you creep towards a South facing aspect) you could find evidence of an old temperature crust, however the cold temps have cause this layer to mostly facet away. I only found one spot where I couldn't punch through it while skinning. In exposed areas I found a wind board layer that wasn't very uniform, often only lasting a few feet in length before disappearing into facets and topped with surface facets. BTL these wind boards were generally small and unsupportable while near treeline they were occasionally thicker and supportable. Above treeline the snow was concentrated below ridgelines and in cross loaded gully features

Below treeline the new snow fell mostly on the ground. Near treeline had more variety, wind and sun protected areas had the new snow siting on mostly facets to the ground (20 - 60cm thick). Wind affected areas had a firm slab between the new snow and near ground facets measuring depths of up to 170cm. Some solar aspects seemed to have a small sun/temperature crust but they were rare, hard to find, and unsupportable. Above treeline the snow looked more wind effected than the other areas with snow mostly being below ridgelines and in cross loaded terrain.

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.