Front Range
Snowpackjohn morrone · May 15, 2011 · Front Range
Weather
sunny, light winds. cumulus could build up by 11:00
Snowpack
overnight snow was 3-4" with not much wind transport or effect noticable, cold winter pow like over frozen (fri-sat) nearly transformed layer (may have been rained on before freezing). as day warmed up thin new snow layer became wet badly roller ball and wet slabable, easily releasing at 40 degrees on icy surface, but isolated to small sizes, trigger limited to skitrack only. lower elevations revealed underlying previous storm snow (10-15" layer)either did not freeze, or thawed very quickly. strong concern for triggering the 15" or so thawed layers by 11:00. Descent of mary jane/Parsenn NE facing bowl was skiable damp new over firm only on upper 500', then deep wet nearly unskiable mank. lower 1/2 of MJ was only skiable in bumps or recently snowcat tracked runs, as isothermal snow at least 18" deep toward base. cornice releases were activating slabs but limited top few layers, prob. <30" deep, A few traveled most of path with significant debris. Mines 1 and 2 are again nicely loaded.