Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Dec 20, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
A beautiful day to spend time in the alpine and get some observations.
Snowpack
North facing slopes BTL had very weak snow with an ice crust at the ground. A small test slope with obvious wind loading cracked and showed the potential where there is a thicker slab over the weak snow. South East facing slopes above treeline had a layer cake of wind blown slabs with facet layers in between. The snow felt strong but the structure was not good. The snow on most south facing slopes had melted apart from areas where it had blown in deeper.
Avalanche
This was a very small avalanche on an obviously wind loaded test slope BTL and showed the potential if there was more slab BTL. Failed 15cm down.