Front Range
SnowpackAustin DiVesta · Mar 19, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
The day's story was the wind; there was a bit of new snow, but mostly wind and cloudy conditions.
Snowpack
I dug on wind-drifted slopes, looking for how reactive the slab was. Some southeast-facing slopes had snow heights of over 300cm, while others were only about 140cm. This variation in snow height is consistent with what I have seen across the Northern Mountains in the last week. In the snowpit along Russell’s shoulder, there was well over 300cm of snow on a southeast-facing slope. I did not get any propagating results on my Extended Column Test. The slab was about 18 inches thick here and rested on a very hard (Knife Hard) melt-freeze crust. I found a small layer for rounding facets just underneath this crust, which is something to watch. My other pit was on the peak between Russell and Stanley. Here, the snow height was 140cm, and similarly, the new snow, which was forming a 4 Finger hard slab, rested on a Knife Hard crust. I got easy propagation (ECTP4 down 20cm) in a slight density change in the recent snow, which rested on this crust. I could dig to the ground, and I found facets 70cm, which were beginning to gain strength but remained relatively weak at 4 Finger Hard.