Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Feb 19, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
It is a snowy and cloudy day with light winds around the Continental Divide. Overall, it was an enjoyable day.
Snowpack
Did I mention that the new snow is deep? That is the main story of the snowpack today. Most of the places we traveled had about 3-4 feet of fresh snow. This new snow fell on top of a somewhat supportable base of snow. I dug one snow pit on a northwest-facing slope around 11,400 feet. The snowpack here was around 265cm. I did find some propagation from six taps from the elbow towards the bottom of the storm snow, which is down 75cm from the surface. This looked like it failed either on a small layer of facets or a slight density change towards the beginning of the storm. Looking forward, we pay attention to the temperature as it warms and the sun's angle starts to get higher in the sky. As the snow warms up and settles, we might start to see the new snow forming a slab. If the winds also pick up (which they will), we'll start to see wind loading on leeward slopes, which is where we'll start to see some large to very large avalanches.
Avalanche
Small Loose Dry avalanches on steep north and northeast-facing slopes below treeline.