Front Range
AvalancheAnonymous · Jan 16, 2014 · Front Range
Weather
Broken skies, very strong NW winds at ridgetops, constant and significant blosno, cold (windchill!) at higher elevations, no precip.
Snowpack
The very strong winds have wrecked the alpine, whatever snow is left has turned into mostly supportive 1F/P hard wind crusts several inches thick. On windscoured slopes where the snow cover is thin, the snowpack consists of mostly dh facets. On windloaded slopes where snow height varies greatly (a few inches to >6ft), the snow surface consists of a mostly supportable windcrust or fairly soft df. The only collapses occurred in the flats on willows in Dry Gulch, no other instability signs. The new windslabs have built further down the slope and appear to be sensitive to ski triggering; these could step down into the basal dh releasing a larger persistent slab. The combo where windslab overlies persistent slab on N-E-S seems to be the most prone to skier triggering especially around treeline which would fit the avalanche pattern of sizes up to R3D3 (some isolated exceptions have been recorded).
Avalanche
<> We observed the results of an impressive avalanche cycle that came to an end approx. 24-48h ago. We estimate that about 70% of all wind loaded slopes of 35dgr and steeper (predominantly N-E-S) at and above treeline have avalanched, sizes up to R3D2; most ran on basal dh though several appeared to have initiated at the interface old snow/wind slab. The start zones of these paths are partially refilled though the most significant windloading occurred about 1/3 further down - it is easy to get lured into a steep slope just to realize that the slab is lurking further down! <> With the warm weather coming, I'd expect the snowpack to slowly gain strength leaving (deep) persistent slab as the only widespread avalanche problem. The best skiing is found where avalanches are most likely to occur- with a bluebird weekend coming, reign in your appetite: this is not the time to push into the big lines!