Front Range
AvalancheAnthony Appezzato · Nov 5, 2017 · Front Range
Weather
Berthed Pass, North West Facing, 11,581 feet. Mostly cloudy, with pockets of short sun. Low 30's to Mid 30's F. Light snow, and strong prevailing winds all day.
Snowpack
Berthed Pass, Northwest Facing, 11,581 feet, Snow Height 38cm. While Isolating a 30cm by 30cm block for a compression test, the top most layer - a layer of aprox 3-4cm of new/wind drifted snow bonded to a less than 1cm layer of ice/sun crust, a top a layer of 3mm and larger facets. I isolated a second column for another CT, this time very gentle to not fail the week layer. I was able to generate a failure of the same layer - 3mm facets below the sun crust - on 3 light taps from the wrist. CTV-CTE, RP Q2, on Solid faceted particles beneath the sun crust
Avalanche
Berthoud Pass-Hanging Meadow, Northwest Facing, 11,000-11,300 feet. During the ski descent i was able to generate loose avalanches, to the ground, simply by making a hard turn and penetrating the sun crust layer into the faceted layers below. These releases would pick up more faceted snow as they traveled down slope, but did not fracture as a slab or propagate.