Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Dec 7, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
The day started calm but cloudy. Towards noon the temperature dropped, and the wind picked up transporting snow that lay undisturbed in the morning.
Snowpack
Below treeline and all the way to near treeline, we found a similar snowpack on northwest, north and northeast aspects. The bottom third was old facets at the ground, the middle third a supportive slab and new snow on the surface. Snow height varied from about 40cm to 90cm, but the structure remained similar. Above treeline we found a very stout mid-pack that was protecting the facets below in compression tests to give hard but propagating results. This slab was connected across the terrain into a large bowl. During our travels, we only experienced localized cracking and two small collapses on northwest-facing rollovers.