Front Range
AvalancheSam Gifford · Dec 15, 2019 · Front Range
Weather
The recent storm snow and winds was starting to subside and visibility was increasing.
Snowpack
Our Snowpack observations were taken below the slide path on the same aspect below treeline. We completed a full profile along with CT, ECT and PST tests. See Snow Pilot Attached. In Summary we found a weak faceted basal layer under a thick and stiff mid-pack containing several buried surface hoar layers and about 35 cm of new snow on top.
Avalanche
Our party was gearing up in the Summit lot of Berthoud Pass in full view of the "Hollywood Cliffs." We watch several skiers/riders descend the slope adjacent to where the slide occurred. We then observed a skier descending further to the skier's left of the others and about 5 turns in they trigger the slide on the right flank. The fracture propagated out the the skier's left and slide over the cliffs resulting in a large powder cloud.