Front Range
AvalancheBen Williams · Mar 5, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
Sunny and clear most of the morning and early afternoon. Few lingering cirrus clouds from the NW. Mid's 20s estimating as a high. No wind through the day and 5 to 7 inches of new snow from Thursday afternoon and evening.
Snowpack
5 to 7 inches of snow from the previous day. New snow stayed mostly dry through the day providing fun riding conditions. Due to the warm temperatures and the solar radiation the snowpack was beginning to gain cohesion. You could almost pick it up but it would still break apart seconds after it had been separated from the snowpack. The south facing aspect was just beginning to feel like a crust in the early afternoon. Runnels were also observed on more exposed slopes just above treeline.
Avalanche
We witnessed one D1/R1 wet loose on a SE aspect near treeline at 11,900. This wet loose triggered naturally at 12:39PM from a small cornice at the top of the SE chute of hidden knoll. The wet loose slide ran approximately 150 to 175 feet down the slope. A second rider/skier triggered R1/D1 wet loose was triggered but another party shortly after the natural. The second wet loose was only about 50 feet from the natural and had a similar starting elevation as the natural. Looking at the tracks it does not appear that either rider/skier was carried by this wet loose avalanche.