Front Range
SnowpackJason Niemeier · Dec 11, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
11,600ft, S facing, below treeline but in more open clearing with very few trees. Clear skies in the morning, snow thin clouds moving in by the afternoon, little to no wind.
Snowpack
We dug around 3 pits throughout the ascent up to the ridge connecting upper 110's and 110's. Some areas had frozen facets to the ground and unfrozen fist hard facets above, while others still had a few inches of unfrozen facets on the ground with frozen facets above. These facets layers near ground surface were followed by a denser layer of snow above that and soft snow on snow surface. All tests revealed very touchy snowpack which we didn't notice many signs of while we skinned up. As we navigated around the aqueduct ditch steep section and eventually got above it, the terrain was covered in wind slabs. We heard 5 whumpfs, saw some shooting cracks ranging from 1-5ft, and felt some collapsing. As we descended in the Upper 110's we found good pow as this area might have been more sheltered from the wind by the higher density of trees compared to our ascent route and pit location near the top of the ridge.