Front Range

Avalanche

Mike Cooperstein · Apr 3, 2019 · Front Range

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Weather

Mostly overcast day with very light snow showers. There were a few openings in the clouds where the sun came through and it started to feel hot, but they didn't last long and it wasn't enough to make the snow surface feel moist.

Snowpack

On northerly and easterly-facing aspects there was a few inches of new snow on top of a thin melt freeze crust. The cold new snow was not bonding at all to the old surface. There was still a layer of cold dry snow below the crust and there weren't signs of water moving through the snowpack. Below that there was a consistent solid slab. On southerly and westerly-facing aspects the snow was much thinner due to the sun and wind.

Avalanche

Multiple Loose Dry or small Wind Slab avalanches ran in the last 24 hours. They are only entraining the fresh surface snow 4-6 inches deep, but they are running a long way and the debris is piling up over a meter deep in some spots.