Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler Austin Divesta · Mar 18, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Calm winds in Rocky So warm gloves were abandoned Wall to wall Sunshine
Snowpack
The snowpack is very deep in Rocky Mountain National Park. We consistently probed close to or over 2 meters at most elevation bands. This was basically constructed of 50-80cm of storm snow with around 1 meter plus of 1 finger and pencil-hard snow beneath. On southerlies, storm, snow was sat on a layer cake of melt-freeze crusts. The storm snow was well bonded to layers below and the only concern was a density change down about 35cm that was reactive in Compression Tests but did not propagate. This layer was not persistent, so it should heal rapidly. Westerly aspects have plenty of new snow and cross-loading from the storm winds. On these aspects continuous snow was hard to find and confined to gullies and certain terrain features. Digging on a northwest aspect, we found deep snow and well-bonded storm snow. Southerly slopes had developed a crust in the morning, but this had broken down by mid-morning, and wetting was getting into the snowpack about 5 to 10cm.
Avalanche
Most avalanches we saw were loose avalanches from steep terrain with lots of cliffs or rocks to heat up. Any crowns we saw were shallow and not very widely propagating.