Front Range
SnowpackBen Bauer · Mar 8, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Sunny in early morning becoming overcast by late morning/early afternoon. Temps around freezing. Now/low winds
Snowpack
We dug two pits, one on the apron of the couloir, and one just below the crux rock band. The first pit showed us that there were several weak layers of concern that were sandwiched between wind slabs. We got an ECTN 16 test result within the first foot or so below the surface. We decided to cautiously move upward, but once we moved into the couloir proper, it was clear that warming and other skiers had helped consolidate the snow, which set our minds at ease a little bit. However, once we reached a point below the rock band where the existing skier tracks stopped, we decided to dig another pit before going further. We discovered an alarming snowpack structure: depth hoar that was buried only about 80cm deep. We performed an ECT, and nothing happened during the standard 30 loading steps, but given the concerning structure, I hit the column a few more times and initiated a fracture that propagated across the entire column after 32 or 33 steps. My hypothesis is that we were in a sheltered enough area in the couloir for depth hoar to form. We didn't want to risk it, so we promptly turned around at that point.