Front Range
AvalancheBrennan Metzler · May 11, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
Temperatures upper 20's to lower 30's at treeline during the day Tuesday. Intense snow squalls passed through the zone on the average hourly. Storm totals at 12,000' were 20-25cm at deepest, generally 15-20cm. Generally light W/NW winds, though during snowbands these intensified to moderate/strong.
Snowpack
Major layer of concern is the new snow-previous refrozen crust interface. This crust was usually the easily identifiable uppermost dust layer in the snowpack, though above 12,000' some crusts were recent storm cycles. No reactive layers within the storm snow observed, though with intense cycles of solar-wind-snow, this would not be surprising to find across many aspects.
Avalanche
We observed multiple natural Dry-Loose avalanche debris/tracks on northerly and northeasterly aspects, that either ran overnight Monday or early Tuesday morning. Two of the observed tracks were D1, one D1.5, and one moving towards the D2 magnitude. The avalanches started in zones greater than 35 degrees, running through 30 degree slopes and slowing once encountering lower angle slopes (mid 20's). Most tracks were in the 1/4-1/2 mile distance, covering 300-800' vertical feet. My turns on one steep (high 30 degree) north facing line created a D1 dry-loose than ran fast on the dusty interface. This wasn't surprising, given observations, though it reinforced the considerable rating for steeper aspects and higher elevation zones.