Front Range

Avalanche

Jason Maurer · Dec 15, 2016 · Front Range

View on map

Weather

Near weather station on west side of pass, on a north east aspect, @ 11,700ft. Moderate to strong winds out of the west with mild temps around 33-35degrees. Obvious stronger wind gusts higher above treeline. Visible and significant snow transport.

Snowpack

Pit location at 11,800ft, above skullbite. NE aspect. Depth of snowpack at this location was around 118cm. Performed 2 compression tests with easy results. On the 1st test I got a CTE down 33cm from the surface that fractured at the interface of the new storm snow ( HST 15cm ) and the old wind slab below. Continuing on, I got the whole column to fail 85cm down (CTE again) on buried facets near the ground. 2nd test produced CTE results but the whole column failed down 93cm to the ground on just 2 taps from the wrist. Aproxx 25cm of buried 1.5mm facets in this location.

Avalanche

None observed