Front Range

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Ron Simenhois · Nov 12, 2020 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Winds were gusting to 40 mph at ridgetop. In the morning a lot of snow was moving but by afternoon snow transport decreased even though the winds did not.

Snowpack

Every wind-loaded, northerly terrain feature we stepped on collapsed. The slabs that failed were small area-wise. The size was also dependent on the terrain feature. Snowpits revealed the same 10 cm layer of facets at the ground that we have seen on almost all northerly slopes throughout the region. Extended column tests produced repeatable propagating results after 11 taps.---Overall, the snow coverage is still really thin and right now there are only a few places you can trigger an avalanche. Those places are wind-loaded slopes that face north and northeast where the snow depth is greater than about 45 cm.