Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Mar 19, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Sunny, warm with a chilly northwest breeze when it did blow although winds were mostly light.
Snowpack
On southerly aspects the storm snow has already settled out to about 20cm. The wetting from warm weather has progressed down about 5cm. This is a firm crust in the morning and a wet layer as the day warms. Below this is cold snow, and then about 30cm down is the first crust that could be an issue for wet slabs when water gets down there. There is no weak layer above this crust. Westerly and northerly aspects that held very thin snow before the storm now have good-looking coverage. This is a very dangerous façade as it would be easy to get lured into steep, shallow, weak terrain with steep, dangerous terrain below. Both these aspects had huge depth hoar as the primary layer of concern making up about 1/3 of the snowpack. Snow depths on these aspects change over a very small distance and stability tests indicate that you will not get much feedback from the snow until you hit a weak area.