Front Range
AvalancheCaitlin Ryan · Feb 11, 2018 · Front Range
Weather
On the drive up there was evidence of recent high winds loading some parts of the road and scouring other parts clean. At the car park, it was warm and moderately windy. The mostly flat 1.5 mile approach through trees was calm and snow off-trail was soft fluffy; as we began the climb up the skin track from the mine, there were moderate winds again, but it was also sunny and warm.
Snowpack
From the mine to the top of our track the snow was dense wind slab. This was on open, east-facing slopes around and above treeline.
Avalanche
We came upon the debris of the slide pictured on our way down, at 10,500ft on an east-facing slope. This was a small, steeper open slope at the top of treeline. The slide ran across most of the width of the slope. It seemed likely that this was a natural slide, not human-triggered, maybe started from a falling cornice. The crown was about a foot deep and it did not run to the ground. As we skied left (north) above the slope and above the crown, there were pre-existing cracks running along the surface of the snowpack, perpendicular to the slide on the convex side of the hill.