Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · May 6, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
Strong easterly winds with extreme gusts made travel unpleasant. Snow was falling but it was hard to assess rates as the wind was redistributing it.
Snowpack
Southwest and northwest aspects had the most new snow drifted on them and were the areas where we found the deepest drifts up to 30cm thick. In these drifted areas, the snow was failing easily in hand shears within the new snow about 20cm beneath the surface. We didn't travel on any westerly slopes, but I imagine these would have received the most drifting, although there was very little snow above the treeline on these aspects before the storm. The upper snowpack was very similar on most aspects we traveled. The snow rested on a thin melt-freeze crust about 10-15cm deep with about 10cm of 4 finger hard, large wet grains beneath. The stubbornness of this crust varied with elevation. Below treeline it was thin and collapsible, near treeline it was supportive to skis, but we did experience some collapsing on this layer, and above treeline the crust was thick and felt solid. The new snow was not well bonded to the crust, but I imagine as temperatures cool overnight, the crust will gain strength, and bonding will increase unless it gets buried deeply quickly. On northerly aspects near and above the tree line, there was still cold, dry wintery snow buried about 70cm beneath the surface. This snow was hard rounds and above it there were multiple ice and melt freeze layers. Below treeline the base of the snowpack was made up of large grain rounding facets. These have seen water and it was possible to make a snowball with these grains.