Front Range
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Apr 14, 2014 · Front Range
Weather
Cool, mostly sunny with scattered clouds, increasing winds...really string and gusty in the alpine. LOTS of drifting snow.
Snowpack
Storm totals in the 14 to 18 in range...low density snow. Winds really picked up around 10am and kept increasing until we turned back around noon. Winds were really gusty in nature, and while predominate winds were from NW, gusts came from almost every direction at some point, even blowing up steep slopes facing S at points. All the steep couloirs and terrain features were simultaneously getting scoured and loaded with wind slabs up to 3 feet thick. The tops of steep chutes with protected start zones (e.g. Dragon's Tail) getting heavy wind loading up high and scouring down low. Snow stayed soft and fluffy below treeline and the strong April sun didn't do much to settle new snow with all the cool winds and periodic cloud cover. Slabs became stiff enough to start breaking in around your skis as soon as you poked out of the trees 1-2 feet thick, increasing to 3+ feet as you moved into the alpine. These slabs will be touchy into tomorrow as they are still forming. The intense loading cuased us to change our planned decsent from a steep SE facing couloir into Tyndall Gorge and we instead retreated to the more mellow east facing slopes of Flat Top as we got concerned about 2-4 foot slasb forming in the catcher's mitts at the top of the chutes.
Avalanche
numberous small sluffs (D1's) on the storm snow. Mainly on east and north facing slopes near and BTL.