Front Range

Avalanche

Austin DiVesta · Dec 13, 2021 · Front Range

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Weather

Temperatures were in the mid-20s at 11 am. Winds were calm BTL and NTL, but along ridge tops moving a little bit of snow around.

Snowpack

Last week’s storm’s snow totals were five to six inches of non-wind-effected snow in the trees. Moving on to wind-effects slopes, I found a stiff (pencil hard) wind-drifted slab sitting on top of weak faceted snow. These pencil hard slabs varied in thickness from one inch to five inches. I found signs of instability (shooting cracks) in this stiff wind-drifted snow approximately fifteen feet in front of my skis. I found most of these cracks where the snowpack was shallower around rock bands producing well-developed depth hoar.

Avalanche

I saw a couple of natural avalanches on the headwall of Current Creek that apeared to have ran sometime last week.