Front Range
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Dec 10, 2018 · Front Range
Weather
Warm day at the trailhead but as soon as I got near treeline the wind was sustained and bitter. Not much snow was transported today as that was taken care of the previous few days, still some snow moving near the higher peaks. The snow depth was all over the place from 1.5 meters or more in wind-loaded areas to many areas of rock and thin snow cover.
Snowpack
I went to look at the recently reported avalanche on St Mary's Glacier in which two skiers were briefly caught. The avalanche was large enough to bury a person with debris piles up to 4 feet deep. The debris piled up in a flat area at the bottom of the steep path enabling the debris to pile up deeply. The avalanche stopped about 100 feet short of a summer trail that many winter recreationalists use in the winter. I think it is safe to assume that many people that use this trail do not intend on being in avalanche terrain and are unaware of the avalanche hazard from above.---Although the debris piles were impressive the avalanche did not propagate widely and stayed within the terrain feature.---I was unable to safely get near the start zone as the crown was completely filled in and the steep start zones were loaded with thick slabs of wind-drifted snow.---I dug on an east-facing slope above but I am uncertain if this is representative of the path that slid. I found mostly pencil hard wind-drifted slabs over a thin layer of four-finger hard 1 mm facets at the ground. No propagating results were observed in an ECT. There also was no distinct mid-pack faceted layer.---It is hard to determine if this avalanche was a large Wind Slab avalanche or if it broke on a persistent layer in the middle of the pack.---In this area the most hazardous slopes are right near treeline as this is where the most consistent snow coverage is and the thickest slabs.---Above treeline is pretty ravaged from the wind. Some east and southeast slopes have consistent coverage but that is about it. The exception is gullies inset in rock that are holding snow on most slopes.---Below treeline there is very little snow.
Avalanche
I walked up to about 12,800 to get a view of the surrounding mountains and did not see any other avalanche activity.