Front Range
AvalancheAmanda Loughlin · Feb 5, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Warm, few clouds, a light west breeze becoming southwest in the afternoon.
Snowpack
The surface snow showed signs of wind and sun effect: large drifts, wind etched snow, snow clumping on skins and poles, and melt freeze crusts. I focused on layers closer to the surface on east and southeast snowpits near treeline, as the HS ranged between 80-170cm. I dug to depths between 95-118cm and found new snow over a 4F or 1F layer on top of a pencil to knife hard slab about 70cm thick. Initial Extended Column Tests (ECTs) on both aspects produced ECTX. The second ECT on east aspect produced ECTN24@26cm on the 4F hard layer. The second ECT on southeast aspect gave a result of ECTN20@22cm, near the interface between fist hard new snow and 1F layer.
Avalanche
Small dry loose D1s on northeast aspect above treeline on Peak 12118.