Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Jan 2, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Temperatures at the trailhead were above freezing, with mostly cloudy skies. Below treeline a little wind, but once we gained the ridgeline, we started to see moderate south to southwest. These winds strong enough to move snow around.
Snowpack
We mainly traveled on east through south-facing slopes below and near treeline. In the meadow we crossed at the start of the day, booming, rumbling collapses happened with almost every step we took in unconsolidated snow for about a quarter mile. Ski penetration for most of the day was about 20-30cm. We only noticed localized cracking and collapsing throughout the day along our skin track. The snow height throughout the day ranged from 70cm to 145 cm. On a Southeast-facing slope, we dug a snow pit with mostly soft snow with 114cm of snow. We noticed a single Melt-freeze crust at 35cm from the ground, but it seemed like it was starting to decompose. Extended Column Tests in this pit produced a moderate propagating test result (ECTP12 x2) at 89cm within the new snow, twice. This same pit also had a hard propagating (ECTP24) at 35cm on top of the 1 Finger hard melt-freeze crust. Once we moved into the more open ridge near treeline, we noticed a little bit more localized cracking in wind-hardened snow. A snowpit on a south-facing slope has mostly soft snow, besides a couple of different crusts near the ground. We noticed a crust sandwich towards the ground with crusts on either side of large facets. We got a moderate propagation result (ECTP20) at 13cm right at one of the crust facet combinations.
Avalanche
One small avalanche off the Grand Ditch towards Red Mountain.