Front Range
SnowpackAndrew McWilliams · Nov 21, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Few clouds and temperatures in the 20s. Light westerly winds and no precipitation.
Snowpack
Overall the snowpack is still quite thin and weak. The main hazard remains pockets of older, dense slabs resting on facets just below ridges and convex rolls and in gully features. These slabs are not continuous and on most slopes you transition quickly from areas that are supportable, to areas with no structure. You could also find a small pocket of drifted snow from the most recent storm that could slide, but with the low storm totals and north winds transporting snow onto aspects with little coverage, any avalanche at this interface would be very small and isolated. I found minimal cracking within the new snow, even after traveling on a number of test slopes at various elevations and aspects. While the danger is still LOW at the moment, our weak snowpack is becoming more continuous and when we get a bigger storm (>6" with wind or bigger) we may see the danger rise quickly. Currently, north through east aspects above treeline are still the most likely place you could trigger an avalanche. These aspects will continue to be the most dangerous when we get another storm. With more snow, near treeline slopes are going to start to come into play, especially on northerly aspects where the snowpack consists of 30-40cm of faceted, structureless snow. I also found a thin melt-freeze crust just at the interface with the newest snow and the older snow on a north aspect near treeline. There were faceted grains on either side of this thin and breakable crust. Easterly slopes above treeline had fresh wind drifts near ridgecrest and were generally covered with snow. The snowpack is thin on these slopes, but there are no longer large patches of bare ground. South and southwest-facing slopes above treeline still had patches of bare ground and lacked continuous coverage. Northerly and westerly slopes were generally scoured and looked much the same as they did last week - there are isolated pockets of snow in terrain features that catch and hold snow. The only continuous snow below treeline was in shaded areas and even in these areas it was 20cm or less. Areas that see any sun were essentially melted back to bare ground. It will take more than one storm for the below treeline elevation band to come into play.