Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Jan 30, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
Winds were light from the northeast and temperatures remained cold throughout the day.
Snowpack
Below treeline there is around 120cm of snow upwards. The mid-pack slab is strong and protects the basal facets with relatively hard ECT results or no results at all. In both observations below treeline i was unable to find the 1/18 weak layer. Stomping some large cornice chunks only caused surface sluffing. You could still trigger an avalanche in the below treeline band, but it would be in a steep open area with a shallower rocky snowpack. Near and Above treeline the snow is deep. In areas that hold snow, the snowpack is 170 to 270cm deep. There would be sudden changes in depth with rocks, but these are likely to act more as anchors to the snowpack than trigger points in this area. I did not find any weak layers in the upper 1.5meters of the snowpack in this area and when probing the snow felt continuously 1 finger or harder all the way to the ground. There were some areas of Wind Slab but these were relatively soft and seemingly randomly distributed and unreactive.