Front Range
AvalancheMike Bannister · Dec 27, 2019
Weather
Partly cloudy, very light snow
Snowpack
Dug a pit at bottom of dragon tail, south facing. 3” of fresh on top, next 3.5 feet was knife-pencil hard slab. Didn’t see the ground. No failure on multiple CT tests. Second pit was about a third of the way up the chute, SE facing. 6” fresh, about 2.5 feet of four finger snow, then 6” of depth hoar. Compression test was failing at 15-20 taps at the depth hoar, Q2. Also had one failure in middle of slab on unknown layer. Considering consequences we bailed. Photo with whippet shows second pit and depth hoar interface. Photo with human is first pit.
Avalanche
Minor thin soft slabs while skiing in dragon tail