Front Range
AvalancheRyan Lewthwaite · Dec 29, 2019 · Front Range
Weather
A very cold morning with -17 Celsius and windchill values made it much colder. Light winds from the northeast were transporting new snow. The overcast skies were transitioning to broken as we left.
Snowpack
We dug on an east aspect near treeline and found a snowpack that was trending towards facets. Light winds from the north and east were transporting snow to lee aspects and beginning to create a wind skin on the exposed surface. The height of snow was 79cm. The low density snow that fell in the past 24 hours measured around 6-10cm. The new snow sits on older, facetted snow that is fist to 4 finger hardness. These layers sit on a pencil hard, decomposing melt-freeze crust that sits on depth hoar to the ground. ECTN x 2 in the layer above the melt-freeze crust. See snowpit profile for more detail.
Avalanche
No new notable avalanches observed.