Front Range
AvalancheMichael Bortnowski · Nov 1, 2015 · Front Range
Weather
11:55am, 11,900', ENE aspect, Sky: 2/8 FEW, No precip, Temps N/A appx 35 degrees, wind 8m/s from WNW G10 m/s, Blowing Snow: Mod.
Snowpack
Pit @ 12:15pm, 11,900', ENE aspect, snow 70cm deep in this area, mostly in the 30-50cm range elsewhere nearby. CT1 10cm down, still consistent with yesterday's tests on upper most wind slab layer. Looks to be breaking on a weak layer consisting of stellar dendrites intermixed with some graupel. Did not see any graupel in yesterday's pit not far away from this one. But I did observe small voids in yesterday's pit but not in this one on that same layer. This pit also had 2 other interfaces of concern near the surface beneath the wind slab (density wise) that proved to be nonreactive with compression tests. at CT22, a sudden collapse occurred 34cm down. Fracture was non planar and slightly irregular. The entire snowpack consisted of grains 1mm or smaller, except for the graupel that was found. Snow below about 11,600 was melting at the surface from sun and temps and forming pinwheels, above 11,800' it remained winterlike.
Avalanche
Natural avalanche observed on east facing slope at around 12,600' of elevation that started underneath a cornice. Looked to be either a point release, or more likely a soft wind slab, hard to tell due to the rocks and terrain it ran through. R1, D1. ran for less than 150' and was no more than 40 feet wide. Might have been present since at least yesterday, but poor visibility could have obscured it earlier. [Assuming this is the one already reported, so not entered into database]