Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Dec 30, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Winds were strong from the west and it was snowing S-1 to S-2 most of the tour.
Snowpack
Generally the snowpack was close to 1 meter deep in all areas we traveled and of that meter the top 40cm was storm snow from the post Christmas storms. Below treeline the snowpack was very talkative on south, east and north facing slopes, and most untraveled areas collapsed as we went through them. Whilst still in flat terrain as we approached steep terrain the snowpack collapsed. The chutes had cracks across the slope but had not slid. The snowpack in this area was about 80cm deep with half storm snow and half basal facets. Both layers were still fist hard. In another area on this aspect I did not feel the very weak base to the snowpack. There seems to be a lot of variation in how the winds have allowed the weak layers to be distributed and preserved in the terrain. Near treeline on an easterly aspect the snowpack had a couple of pencil hard layers with facets between. This layer failed on Compression Tests but not on Extended Column Tests. This area was very wind affected and the basal facets were small and a long way from depth hoar. This area is probably fairly similar to higher elevation slopes closer to the divide.