Front Range
SnowpackPedro Rodriguez · Dec 30, 2016 · Front Range
Weather
At 10:30AM wind was calm/light blowing to the west. Temperature was record at -2C at 11,100ft on a SE slope. Temperature throughout the day was consistently -2C in sunny slopes and -9C in sheltered north aspects.
Snowpack
Dug a pit at 11,500ft on a SE slope. The summary of the SnowPilot snow pit is: Two compression tests resulted in a CTV@10cm down on windslab and CTH@85cm down on depth hoar. ECT resulted in ECTN for the wind slab layer and ECTX for the depth hoar layer. Crystal photos of depth hoar seem to indicate that it is rounding. Photos of the snow pit slope show it is well tracked. A second quick pit was dug at approximately 2PM on dead north on a small terrain feature of 35 degrees at 11,300ft. This resulted in CTEQ2@15cm down and CTN at the depth hoar layer. I observed that the wind slab was harder, thicker, and the depth hoar at the base of the snowpack was thinner and more cohesive (4F hardness perhaps).