Front Range

Snowpack

Ryan Zarter · Dec 4, 2022 · Front Range

Weather

Scattered clouds becoming broken during my time in the field. Temperatures were just below freezing, and it felt quite warm leaving the TH. Moderate SW winds with steady transport at ridgetop and off the higher peaks around. Occasional transport was observed in the NTL zone.

Snowpack

The snowpack was still plenty talkative near treeline today, with lots of cracking and collapsing observed on east to northeast aspects (I didn't really travel on north aspects near treeline), particularly in areas that had been previously wind loaded. I tried to dig in a bit more sheltered of an area to get an idea of slab development without the influence of the strong winds we have had over the previous few days. Where I dug the snowpack was 80cm deep with about 40cm of depth hoar covered by a couple of faceted layers and capped with a thin 1 Finger hard slab. This is covered with about 20cm of decomposing new snow. Propogating ECT results at the depth hoar interface. Boot pen was to the ground, but ski pen was only about 20cm. Snow height varied quite a bit in the near treeline zone, from 40cm to over a meter in depth, but coverage was continuous. Below treeline on northeast and north aspects I found an unsupportive slab on top of depth hoar, making for interesting travel. Early in the day on a southeast aspect below treeline I observed the sun warming the snow surface, with moist snow in the top few cm.