Front Range
AvalancheColeman Kane · Dec 4, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
Mostly cloudy with moderate southwesterly winds. Temps stayed in the upper twenties.
Snowpack
We found two distinct slab layers above 40 cm of depth hoar. These layers ranged from 1F to P. In some of the debris, we could see that there were clean fractures between these two layers. I suspect the upper slab is wind deposited snow from last weeks storm. It wouldn't be surprising to find some facets at the interface of these two slabs, though clearly it's not the weakest layer.
Avalanche
Skier 1 remotely triggered a hard slab avalanche. The avalanche was small relative to the path and large enough to bury or kill a person. (HS-ASr-R2-D2) The crown ranged from 4 feet to a less than a foot, and broke about 2000' across the slope. The avalanche broke across an SE, E, and NE aspect at 11,240 feet. The avalanche was triggered on an east aspect in a shallow snowpack.