Front Range

Avalanche

John Gorman · Feb 20, 2022 · Front Range

View on map

Weather

Clear, sunny day with some cloud cover, especially earlier in the day. Some light wind throughout the day. Was about 27F at the trailhead at 815am but had warmed up to 40F by 1030am.

Snowpack

The snowpack near Kenosha Pass was thin to non-existent on any slopes facing remotely South. Thin cover on other slopes that was mostly rounded facets with some newer snow on top. I did find a shady, deep point on a small, low angle NE facing slope below a ridge at 10250ft. Made hollow sounds when walking on it, short shooting cracks, collapsed (but didn't slide) when I jumped on it. There was about a 10cm slab that failed on top of a layer of very hard of snow.

Avalanche

Observed a large crown near treeline on this face. It seemed to be at least a few days old as the windward side of the crown looked to have filled in a bit. I was too far to see a potential trigger. The avalanche must have ran several hundred feet as I couldn't see debris. The crown seemed to run between and below stands of trees. I couldn't get a good picture that shows the whole crown. I traced what I saw in one of the attached picture.