Front Range
AvalancheDanielle/Alex Perrot/Dierker · Jan 14, 2017 · Front Range
Weather
Overcast in the morning, sun came out for a few hours around midday and then there were light clouds overhead from about 2 PM to 4 PM. No wind. Air temp was 2 ºC at 1:30 PM.
Snowpack
One large collapse on steep rollover below us while we skinned up a tree-covered ridge (east facing slope). Took a depth transect ATL on east facing slope (approximately 5 meters long), found depths ranging from 185 to 290 cm. While probing could feel some less dense layers at depth. Upon digging pit for top 120 cm of the snowpack, found storm slab overlying windslab, no large temperature gradient for this portion of the snowpack.
Avalanche
Looked like a cornice-collapse triggered slide on an ENE-facing aspect above-treeline, hard to tell how big from far away or how recently it happened, but debris looked like it had traveled a significant distance onto the bench below (believe this is the Horseshoe Creek drainage, it's visible from the road out to the Anchor Mine).