Front Range
Snowpackmarkus beck · Feb 12, 2012 · Front Range
Weather
Morning mostly clear skies and pleasant, afternoon overcast and light to moderate snow. Light to moderate winds, variable on the ground with WNW prevailing winds.
Snowpack
Focused on the alpine. several test profiles at 11800 on periphery of known avy path in 2nd creek headwall, 30-38dgr on ENE-NNE, HS 152cm. Found old buried persistent windslab (1F to K, down 100cm and deeper) resting on large DH. Recent snow formed 30-50cm storm slab (F). Storm slab produced ECT E/M Q2, ECT M pr and PST 60,100 (end) down 40cm on 1mm facets (1F). Persistent deep slab produced PST 40,100 (end) down 110cm on 5-6mm DH. We confirmed yesterday's estimated ATL stability at fair: hard persistent slabs are hard to trigger and, resting on large DH near the ground, can break very deep and propagate over greater distance. Only few collapses below and at TL on SE-NE, failure layer below storm slab as well as in DH. Slopes near treeline are most reactive and with steady trickle of new snow, skier triggered slab avalanches are becoming more likely on N-E-S.