Front Range
SnowpackBrian Lazar · Feb 24, 2011 · Front Range
Weather
mild temps, overcast skies, snowing most of the day; mainly s-1, but periods of up to S2. 2 inches on the ground at 10am, and a total of 5-6 inches had fallen by the time I left the parking lot at 2PM.
Snowpack
Deep snowpack for RMNP. Over 2m on the ground nearly all locations even BTL. 5-6 inches of low density had fallen on top of mixed bag of older surface conditions. This snow had already blown into 8-12" on lee aspects...mainly N through east. Crusts made up old snow surface on nearly all aspects BTL. Temperatures appear to have gotten warm enough during last warm spell to form firm temp crust even on N'erthly aspects. New storm snow not bonding all that well. Witnessed and caused widespread sluffing of new (and currently falling) storm snow. Winds were strong enough to start to stiffen up storm slab even BTL, and produce some cracking. Natural and skiers triggered soft storm slabs were encountered....see avy obs.