Front Range
SnowpackAustin DiVesta · Dec 18, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
The temperatures warmed up nicely today from below zero to around 20 degrees by mid-afternoon. Lower clouds lifted mid-morning but high clouds stuck around for most of the day—a remarkably calm day on top of Berthoud Pass.
Snowpack
I traveled mostly on the westerly side of the compass today near treeline. Snowheights varied from bare ground in sports to about 70cm of snow in more sheltered areas. Strong west through north winds stripped a lot of the snow in more exposed areas. The snow surface varied from soft, weak snow to an extremely stiff wind-board that I had a hard time getting my ski edge into. I found a mostly faceted, weak snowpack in a snowpit around 11,800ft on a northwest aspect. A harder (1 Finger on the hardness scale) slab was only 4cm thick. An Extended Column Test produced a hard propagating result (ECTP24 at 75cm). A Propagation Saw test did not produce a significant result where the slab rested on the mid-pack weak layer. However, on the basal facets, the result was PST50/100 END at 23cm. I moved to a west-facing slopes around the same elevation and found 70cm of soft snow with no wind effect. The top half had a small 4 Finger slab, but most of the snowpit profile was fist hard, either with new snow or old, weak snow. As soon as west-facing slopes from a slab, we could see more avalanches breaking on that side of the compass.