Front Range
Avalanchejohn morrone · Dec 12, 2014 · Front Range
Weather
minimal winds, mostly clear, with some light cirrus, warm, all obs from pumphouse basin S of mt russell. snow surface becoming wet in early PM, nicely freezing into breakable crust in later PM shadows.
Snowpack
in general thin and faceted snowpack below treeline, overnight snow surface (facets or small hoar) becoming wet in sun and PM temps. above treeline a strong supportive slab was encountered, also with sun and temp moistened surface. snowpit at 12,800 SSE exposure. 30 degree slope, 2 PM air temp +1, T surf -2; T10 -5; T30 -9; t base -3 HS= 105 CT= no result generally pencil to finger hard dense slab, with 1 finger layer at 55cm, more finger to pencil slab, 6 cm of basal facets 1-2 mm, necking
Avalanche
none seen