Front Range
AvalanchePaul Rogers · Nov 24, 2015 · Front Range
Weather
Clear skies, no precip, light winds from Westerly direction, no blowing snow even at ridge tops, with mild temps in the mid 30's.
Snowpack
Below TL: The snowpack is thin and little to no slab development below TL, and the snowpack is either faceted in shady areas or crust/sun affected on S'rly areas. At and just below TL, N'rly aspects that are protected from the wind, are a few remaining areas of good skiing - if you can avoid rocks/tree stumps. Above TL: Highly variable, Extremely wind affected from recent West, SW and NW winds. Significant loading and increased slab development, above TL, N-E aspects. Difficult to find soft snow to ski above TL. Observations and Test Pit at 11,800 on E'rly slopes, ~30 degrees. 180cm depth, with upper and mid pack dominated by P to 1F wind slabs resting on a lower pack consisting of multiple decaying crust layers over basil facets. CT produced moderate results 50cm down on thin faceted layer between wind slabs. Difficult to produce results in lower pack and tried DTT with hard, non-planar results on basil facet layer. In areas where the snow pack is deep (130-200cm), difficult to product results on persistent layers in lower snowpack. Thick slab development is becoming more pronounced in the Alpine N-E aspects yet it is important to note that the distribution is highly variable and thus easy to happen upon areas where the snowpack is still thin and you could potentially access persistent weak layers.
Avalanche
Did observe a recent large avalanche (3-4 days old), yet it was far from our location and accurate observations could not be made. it was up along the continental divide in the Jones Pass area, near peak 12,673 at an elevation over 12,000, on a NE aspect. Extensive propagation and looked to be about an R4 and could not estimate the D value but presume at least a D2. Presume this was around the time of the recent avalanche activity on Berthoud Pass.