Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Feb 22, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Winds were calm with occasional flurries of snow.
Snowpack
I observed mostly near and above treeline elevation bands from south to north. In all areas the surface snow was very low density, poorly bonded to the snow beneath and a mix of stella's and graupal/rimed snowflakes. On southerly aspects below treeline there was a suncrust down about 10-15cm which was bonding poorly with the new snow. I think this was the sliding surface for the loose avalanches I observed. On an easterly aspect near treeline my probe would not reach the ground after digging down 1.5 meters. The snowpack was mostly made up of firm layers of rounded grains with a couple of softer faceted layers that were rounding and gaining strength. These layers did not propogate fractures in Extended Column Tests. On a northerly aspect I dug in a shallow area of only one meter of snow and is known to be shady and cold. The bottom third of the snowpack on visual inspection looked like weak facets but they were infact 1 finger hard and when isolating a column they came out as a single cohesive unit. Above this layer there were some rounding facets that produced results in Compression Tests but again did not propogate in Extended Column Tests.
Avalanche
Multiple loose dry avalanches were observed in steep southerly terrain that appeared to be running on a sun crust.