Front Range

Avalanche

Zach Guy · Apr 19, 2016 · Front Range

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Weather

Broken skies, S-1 at times, moderate westerly winds

Snowpack

12"-24" of storm snow, upside-down on many above treeline slopes due to wind-drifting and stiffening. Southerly aspects had a 1" thick surface crust. Some typical start zones were scoured away by SE'rly winds from earlier in the storm.

Avalanche

See photos. Skier triggered a 15" thick soft slab from a windloaded ridgeline on a north aspect above treeline. It failed just above the crust interface and gouged down to the crust, running about 1,000 vertical feet. SS-ASc-R2-D1.5-S/I. There was a similar fresh natural that ran on a NE aspect ATL in the Ptarmigan Chutes. There were 4 D1 to D2 debris piles below the south side of Flattop; from sun-initiated loose snow avalanches that ran sometime in the last couple days but not today.