Front Range

Snowpack

BoLars Matson · Nov 6, 2011 · Front Range

Weather

Mostly cloudy and calm.

Snowpack

At and below treeline the snow pack was about 50 cm. 20 cm of new snow over a crust (wind?). This crust was mostly brealable, but supportable or non-existent in some places. Below this crust was facets to the ground. 1mm in the upper part, 2mm closer to the ground. The upper snow pack failed easily below the crust in stability tests. But collasping or cracking was not observed. As would be expected with a shallow snowpack there was a strong enough temperature gradient throughout the entire snowpack to promote faceting. No avalanches were observed. Tracks observed in steep (~40) winfloaded terrain above treeline.