Front Range
AvalancheLuke Robinson ยท Feb 27, 2026
Weather
Bluebird day. Temps were above freezing till about 12,000ft but there was a strong west breeze making it feel significantly colder. By 2pm the snow surface showed signs of becoming moist just on the surface where directly exposed to the sun. There was some blowing surface snow but not a significant amount
Snowpack
Below and near treeline ,where snow was found it was a mostly weak snowpack. Snow surfaces were very wind textured and the snow had a wind hardened surface layer over facets to the ground. Above treeline the snow in the loaded features was often deep (2m) and was made up of a series of very hard slabs on top of each other (I often couldn't get my probe through some of the slabs). Some of the slab interfaces didn't seem to bond the slabs together very well but this seemed to be really rare problem and with how hard. The snow surfaces were wind textured and hard which should provide a good sliding surface for future wind slab development in future storms.
Avalanche
Cornice Bowl of Glen cove had a small wind slab avalanche that happened within the last few days (probably just following the snow we got last weekend). E facing around 12,400' just below a ridgeline. The avalanche appeared to be rather shallow and due to lack of snow coverage didn't travel far down slope before running into an area with insufficient snow to slide. Pictures attached