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Rosa, Katherine ¹ ; Kerr, Christopher ² ; Meleyco, Nicholas ³ ; Rideout, Keeley⁴ ; Williams, Tyson ⁵ ; Willard, Ryan ⁶

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The responsibility of the Snow Hydrology Interns is to travel into the Boulder watershed to sites along Niwot Ridge as part of a 30-year ecological research project. The intern’s role within the project is to collect samples and data necessary for analysis of snow properties. At each site, a snow pit is dug to the ground where samples are taken and tests are administered. The interns collect data on key properties of the snowpack, such as the stratigraphy, a density profile, and a temperature profile. While in the laboratory, the interns analyze the chemistry of the snow samples gathered from the field, testing for levels of various chemicals and elements critical to water quality as well as examining conductivity and pH levels. The analysis of this year’s snowpack allows for the estimation of the amount of water held in Boulder’s watershed and the quality of the water. The larger implication of this research is data collected from the individual layers of the snowpack that can be equated to snow quality and snow conditions. The avalanche danger in areas around Colorado has been at a high level and will most likely persist for the majority of the season, due to how the snowpack layers have been formed. Evidence of this can be found in the properties of the layers (snow grain size, shape, hardness, etc.) in which the interns analyze at the site. In comparison to last year’s snowpack that had higher snow volume and more stability, this year’s snow pack has less volume and is less stable: explaining the high avalanche danger. The snowpack is a dynamic system that needs to be monitored in order to have an accurate analysis of Boulder’s watershed and to keep the snow as a safe source of recreation.