Front Range

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg · Mar 21, 2025 · Front Range

Weather

Windy with no snow transport. I did see isolated, intense transport (like around Pass Lake), but that was it. Temperatures were mild.

Snowpack

I dug on a northeast-facing near treeline slope and found a snowpack 180 cm deep. I got a result of ECTP18 on a faceted snow buried on March 3rd. This layer is 35 cm deep in this snowpit. The weakest layer of basal facets is at the top of the depth hoar, 50 cm from the ground. The hardness is one-finger-minus, which is not concerning. When I moved slightly east of northeast, I found a shallower, weaker snowpack. I dug on an east-northeast near treeline slope and found a snow depth of 140 cm. Although this snowpack was shallower than the one mentioned above, I did not get any propagating results in either the layer buried on March 3rd or the basal facets. A thin crust capped the March 3rd layer, but the facets beneath this layer were thinner and stronger than more north-facing slopes. The weakest portion of the basal facets was similar to above, the top of the depth hoar layer. Differently, this layer was four-finger-minus in hardness, which is more concerning. The mid-pack slab formed mostly from February snow is still strong and hasn't faceted out. The hardness of the February slab is up to pencil-hard. I dug some quick pits above treeline. I found the March 3rd layer in these snowpits, but it was very thin and not very weak. I think that above treeline slopes saw too much wind during the late February drought period, so the March 3rd layer is less reactive or non-existent above treeline. Also above treeline, and as usual, the snow height is very inconsistent from deeply filled easterly-facing gullies to completely stripped west through north-facing slopes. Any place with snow above treeline is very hard and deep and it would be hard to find impactable weak layers and trigger avalanches. Lastly, I dug on a northeast-facing slope at 10,700 feet as I descended. This was the shallowest and weakest snowpack I found all day. The snow height was 110 cm, and basal facets poured out of the pit wall. There isn't much of a slab at this elevation, but it is something we should watch. I large load from an easterly upslope storm would be very worrisome on these lower elevation northerly slopes.