Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Feb 16, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
It was an overall pleasant day around Berthoud Pass. The winds weren’t too bad, but enough to blow some snow around. It was snowing on and off all day, with maybe 1 inch accumulating throughout the day.
Snowpack
While I only dug below treeline today,, around 11,300ft on an east—and northeast-facing slope, they were both open, wind-affected areas. The snowpack here is still somewhat shallow, with heights only around 125cm. Overall there is about a foot of new snow below treeline on east-facing slopes, this new snow rests on top of a melt-freeze crust which is Knife Hard about 4-5cm thick. While I did not get any propagating results, I am becoming more worried about the facet layer that will continue to grow below this crust. I did a Propagation Saw Test on a layer of facets directly below this crust, and it self-arrested somewhere within this layer before reaching the end of the column (PST50/100Arr). This weak layer is something to pay attention to in the coming days/weeks as it becomes weaker and we continue to get snow. Meanwhile, it was all relatively weak snow on the northeast-facing slopes above a slope that previously avalanches. The snow height was 126cm, and the entire snowpack was made of relatively soft snow (Fist and 4 Finger hard snow), which was either the foot of new snow or facets in varying stages of development. My Extended Column Test failed with three taps from the shoulder about 30cm from the ground in well-developed depth hoar crystals. I did not dig near or above treeline today but probed around a bunch, and I seemed to find all the deep spots with areas well over 250cm. I noticed some cracking underfoot, but nothing was shooting ahead of my skis. This cracking was “failing” on a density change of new snow that had not been affected by the wind. Several of these slopes have tiger stripping and pillows of drifted snow, which made for a drum-like sound walking around. These are places that I’d continue to avoid.
Avalanche
Second Creek Headwall