Front Range
SnowpackAustin DiVesta · Mar 30, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Partly cloudy skies for most of the day with strong southwest winds. When the sun did come out it was very warm, even with the wind.
Snowpack
In my travels below treeline, I noticed southerly-facing slopes having a thin 1-3cm melt-freeze crust. On more northerly-facing slopes, I did not find this crust. It wasn’t until around 1 pm that the snow below treeline became moist again. Around near treeline, snow surfaces varied from very stiff (you couldn’t see your skin track) to soft ( your ski penetration was about 3-5cm). This elevation band has the most variety in snow heights, with some areas around 120cm then others at over 250cm of snow. I dug on a northeast slope around a wind-loaded terrain feature. I found that most of the snowpack in this pit was 1 finger to pencil hard. I observed one layer 20cm down from the surface that was 4-finger but did not appear faceted. Over the last few days, the strong winds created a cohesive slab that rests on a density change of decomposing particles. I had no propagating results in my Extended Column Tests (ECTX). I did note some minor cracking around my skis while traveling through this near treeline elevation, but it was only localized to underfoot. When I moved into the above treeline elevation band, the wind heavily affected most of the snow, creating a stiff chalky texture. The intense spring sun made a melt-freeze crust yesterday on more southerly slopes. I found snow heights from 200cm to 90cm. I chose to dig on in a shallower portion and found very stiff, pencil to 1-finger hard snow resting on top of 4-finger facets near the ground. Extended Column Tests produced easy propagation results (ECTP5 at 45cm) on the 4-finger faceted layer. This snow pit did have a couple of rocks towards the bottom of the pit, which might have created this result. This is an example of being able to trigger an avalanche from shallower portions of the slope, where you can easily impact these weak basal layers.