Front Range

Snowpack

Justin Peacock · Dec 22, 2014 · Front Range

Weather

Snow 1-2"/hr, NTL wind

Snowpack

Spicy and variable. NTL in the trees on east to north and open areas there was *constant* whumpfing. Some of the larger collapses were shaking branches. New snow in these areas was at least knee deep, with pockets and drifts of 4 feet. For the most part all of this snow in protected areas was unconsolidated, light and lovely pow. If temps warmed up during the storm, there were no obvious signs of the upside down storm or a density change within the new snow. unless it was very very subtle. It seems that it was actually quite cold as Paul Rogers mentioned in his observation yesterday. Around on north facing terrain NTL around the aqueduct the snowpack was highly variable. This area is much more exposed to wind and complex eddies and shifts. The name of the game was crossloading. Fat pillows were forming in isolated specific terrain features, and the snow was stripped/hammered old snow in other places. Where the pillows are forming the snow can vary from 4F/Fist to 1F. Many of the areas the new snow was not cohesive enough to form slabs that would propagate beyond the skis, if at all. Other places the snow was hair-trigger. One test slope propagated a very soft slab 15-20 feet wide and 4-6" deep remotely. An exposed and heavily loaded cornice fractured 30 feet wide and close to 3 feet deep with little more than the brush of a ski tip. From our observations on this one NTL tour it seems that the variability is exceptional from slope to slope. The new load from this storm is significant, and in the right places the snowpack is hair-trigger, especially within the new/old snow interface. In other places there are not many clues to instability, which could be areas of lurking persistent slab or no slab at all. Slope to slope variability seems huge right now, even in the micro-terrain scale, and makes for very tricky travel.