Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Dec 3, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
A beautiful and I mean beautiful day in an area that is usually howling with wind. Clear skies and temps just below freezing all day.
Snowpack
Below treeline there is about 40 to 70cm of snow except on southerlies where is was closed to 30cm. BTL the snow was fist or 4 finger hard all the way to the ground and there was very little slab present. On steeper test slopes I was not even able to get any loose dry activity to release. The surface is faceting. Near and above treeline the wind has really sculpted the snow and created deep drifts in many places and left dirt behind in others. In areas with consistent snow on the aprons of the steeper cliffs higher up the snow depth was consistently close to or above 1 meter and a lot of this snow was very firm 1 finger or harder snow. Observing south easterly aspects there were Persistent Weak Layers (PWL) in the lower portion of the snowpack and reactivity was related to how stiff the snow was over these layers. Near Treeline the overlying slab was a little softer and I was able to get propagating failures but Above Treeline where the slab is more dense there was no propagation. These weak layers at the ground seem to be rounding.