Front Range

Avalanche

Mike Soucy · Mar 21, 2020 · Front Range

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Weather

Mostly sunny with increasing clouds in the afternoon. Lots of sun on E-S aspects this morning. Light winds below 11,000'. Moderate from the west in the alpine. Not much transport happening.

Snowpack

Variability in recent storm snow totals from east side of the pass to west. Looked like close to 30cm new around Blue-Zimmerman Lk trailheads. Closer to 15cm at west side trailheads. BTL-NTL still had cohesionless stellars on the surface. Moist by late morning on E-S. ATL had 4F windslabs 15-30cm thick in specific areas- below ridge top E-NW aspects. Hand shears at interface were stubborn. Localized cracking when I ski cut pillows, but things weren't propagating much farther than my skis, and not moving far downslope.

Avalanche

Couple of non-destructive dry loose avalanches on steep northerly aspects around the pass. Certainly potential for some wet-loose in the storm snow on E-S by late morning/noon. Seems like we got a bit of refreeze with cloud cover in PM. No slab avalanches observed, moderate slope testing going on out there today.