Front Range
SnowpackDrew Gibson Austin DiVesta · Nov 27, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
Partly cloudy skies and high ridge top winds from the west. Temperatures warmed to the mid teens.
Snowpack
Thin snow cover around 10,000ft. Observing sheltered northerly facing slopes near 11,200ft we found an average of 50cm of snow. On NE slopes we found soft cohesionless snow to the ground, in some places up to 80cm deep. At treeline snow pits revealed mostly soft, fist hard snow with one, and in some places two 4 finger hard layers. In the upper snow pack Compression and Extended Column Tests both had moderate failures near these relatively harder layers. Up to three inches of new snow was observed in the area. Strong ridge top winds were transporting snow in the early and middle of the day, but by the afternoon speeds increased and snow was sublimating. Leeward slopes and gullies had new wind load as well as cross loaded gullies on the the north and south aspects. Overall the snowpack on the NE aspect is shallow and weakening. The persistent slab is deteriorating in places and the snowpack is losing structure. Despite a little deeper depth in places it is easy to make a turn and hit ground.