Front Range
SnowpackMike Cooperstein · Dec 20, 2018 · Front Range
Weather
Clear day with no new snow. Still light wind transport from the northwest. Temperatures in the teens to low twenties.
Snowpack
Snowpack is composed of soft wind-blown snow at the surface with a harder slab in the midpack. Then facets to the ground. There is a lot of evidence of wind loading from the past 24 hours. Areas just below easterly-facing ridgelines are loaded as well as the sides of the gullies and concave terrain features. There is evidence of wind sculpting and wind pillows near the ridgelines. Steep wind-loaded slopes are dangerous and should be avoided. The snowpack is thickest in the center of the gullies and in previously wind-loaded areas and a lot of snow has been transported into the trees at lower elevations. You can trigger a wind slab avalanches in all wind-loaded areas and these avalanches could step down to buried weak layers near the ground. Toward the edges of the wind slabs and in rocky areas, the snowpack is thin and weak layers are closer to the surface making them easier to trigger.