Front Range

Snowpack

Markus beck · Jan 14, 2012 · Front Range

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Weather

Pleasant, few clouds, near/below 0C, light WNW winds a bit stonger at ridgetops, light blosno at ridgetops (fetches mostly empty).

Snowpack

Large collapse, shooting crack ~40ft, failure layer in 3-4mm facets, down ~42cm. Test profile (#1)- objective: recent windslab, sensitivity and propagation potential: 4F windslab ~42cm thick, atop thin suncrust atop 3-4mm facetted layer; further down near base, some of the pits revealed a 1F/P old windslab layer though the one described here did not (pit next to location of collapse). CT21Q1, PSTend30stepdown63d42cm (initial failure on facets 3-4mm under thin suncrust, stepdown into facets), RB2wb on same layer. We proceeded to ski slightly lower angle margin of that slope, put in a ski cut on convex roll with no faillure.