Front Range

Snowpack

The snow surface in the Sisters was variable and consisted of either near surface facets, a thin layer of wind packed rounds, or it was scoured down to an older, (very) wind-hardened layer of rounds. We found no evidence of warming on this north aspect near treeline. Digging into the snow a bit, we found a shallow and relatively soft slab sitting over a 5cm thick layer of facets. ECTN results on this layer. All of this sits on a very hard (K-) layer of rounds that caps a few layers of 1F to P hard rounding facets. Traveling to the Sisters, we found softening melt-freeze crusts or wet snow on south to southeast aspects below treeline. The surface on east aspects was getting moist (upper 5cm or less), and northeast aspects remained cold.