Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Nov 30, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
I guess you are desensitized when 20-30mph seems like an okay day in RMNP. It was a warm day early on, but as soon as the sun dipped behind the hill it was really cold. Lots of blowing snow.
Snowpack
Below the treeline was generally a shallow snowpack of about 30-40cm, and there was no slab. Half was new snow, and half was faceted. At treeline, the snowpack was chatting to us with frequent whumpfs and shooting cracks on southeast to east to north facing slopes. On southeast aspects there was a 5-10cm stout layer down about 30cm that I assume formed from the Sunday snow and wind. This layer was failing on isolation during extended column tests on the facets beneath. On cold northerly slopes, there were a couple of pencil-hard wind-packed layers separated by facets. Any avalanche in this snow would most likely step down to the base. On our way out the snow had slabbed up a lot due to wind transport.