Front Range
SnowpackNick Wigston · Dec 16, 2012 · Front Range
Weather
Cold, windy, and snowing steadily most of the day. There were a few times where the snow stopped or slowed, but overall it was snowing pretty hard all day.
Snowpack
The snow pack is generally thin. The area we were has a good amount of steady wind distributed snow, making it deeper than most surrounding areas, yet without a solid wind crust. We were traveling on snowshoes. There was not enough snow to ski without destoying skis. There was minor whoomfing and collapsing, and cracks around our snowshoes. We did not see any shooting cracks. we witnessed one larger collapse of an area about 15 feet by 6 feet. We dug two pits. The first was at 10,400 ft and in a small open area in the trees. About a 32-34 degree slope. The total snow depth was around 2 feet. The bottom 4 inches was super loose facets. The next 6 inches was a harder slab, and the rest was lighter and newer snow from the past week. The lightest being on top. We did an ECT that failed and propogated with 9 taps from the wrist. It failed on the depth hoar. Then we went back the way we came and descended in a less steep and more forrested area. We did another ECT on. 30 degree north facing slope at about 10,100 feet. This ECT did not fail at all. The snow was shallower in this second spot by about eight inches. (Less distibution from wind)