Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Mar 30, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
The day started off warm below treeline. At upper elevations, it still remained warm, but the winds helped cool the snow surfaces, Winds along the ridgelines were cracking that was depositing recent snow onto easterly-facing slopes.
Snowpack
Below treeline, the snowpack surface was moist and difficult to travel on once you left the road. Near and above treeline, northerly-facing slopes remained cold for most of the day. On A north-facing slope near treeline around 2:30 pm, the snow was a weird mix of a small breakable crust caused by warm temperatures and snow transported. I was surprised to find a deep snowpack on a northwest-facing slope. The majority of places I probed were well over 1.5m deep. When I dug into this slope, I found a primarily right-side-up snowpack. There was a small melt-freeze crust around 70cm down, but I did not find any faceting happening above or below this crust. The softer layers were the recent snow that fell on the 28-29th of March. My Extended Column Test produced a non-propagating test result on that melt-freeze crust, but I did not get any propagation on this slope. However, once I moved uphill about 200-300ft to a more above treeline part of the slope, the snowpack was 84 cm deep. The thin wind-pressed snow propagated on isolation (ECTPV down 5cm) on density change of the recent snow. There was still a weak basal layer of facets at the ground, where I got a propagating result (ECTP25 at 0cm). This suggests that while the strength is slowly improving, there is still a possibility of triggering a deeper avalanche on northwest slopes. On a northeast-facing slope near treeline, I found a somewhat deep snowpack with depths well over 1.5m. I got a propagating result (ECTP17 down 45cm) on a layer of very small facets.
Avalanche
About 10 minutes before, I watched a snowmobiler high mark a steep east-facing slope without triggering an avalanche. I continued on and then looked back and saw a natural wind-slab avalanche that covered part of their tracks.