Front Range
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Dec 29, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
Broken skies all morning with no precipitation. Northwest winds were moderate and moving snow. Temperatures in the single digits.
Snowpack
There was 15cm of new snow where I dug on a north-to-northeast aspect above treeline. I noted cracking and collapsing at the interface of the new and old snow surfaces as I traveled. The new snow was low-density and fist-hard. Winds were light to moderate and moving snow. The wind direction was generally northwest, but some gusts were a bit south of west. Snow depths near where I dug ranged from about 90cm to 150cm. My pit was 115cm deep. The new snow was resting on a thin and breakable crust. This crust was supportable to skis in places, and in others, I sank into the facet layer below. I got propagating results on isolation just below this crust in facets while performing Extended Column Tests. The facets below the crust are on a pencil-hard wind slab which is above more facets down to the ground. One Extended Column Test had a hard result in the basal facets.