Front Range

Avalanche

john morrone · Dec 13, 2018 · Front Range

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Weather

cold (-10c), strong gusty winds on ridgetops and ATL, minimal wind in sheltered and trees. wind ripping new storm snow off exposed areas, white outs/ vertigo inducing from blowsnow

Snowpack

S faces quite different from E or N, pre-storm surface had hard supportive suncrust on S and strong solar aspects, and firm windslab surface ATL, but easy skiing and boot pen through it BTL and shady aspects. wind was removing new snow from N and E and moving it onto (or off and across) previous windslabs. test pit at 11,495' S facing just below treeline. HS 75 ice at base, facets up to 55. strong M/F crust at 55-60 cm w/ planar facet surface at base. CT 23 SC Q1 on facets at base of ice crut. ECTX, but excessive pounding >30 resulted in non-propagating failure in deep facets above basal ice.

Avalanche

no new avys seen