Front Range
SnowpackMatthew Lohr · Jan 23, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
Strong SW wind gusts, off and on periods of blowing snow.
Snowpack
Our touring party dug a snowpit at roughly 10,950 feet on a NE aspect slope. We were in a lightly gladed area near treeline that was fairly wind-sheltered from the prevailing SW winds. The snowpack was roughly 95 cm deep. The bottom 10 cm was weak, fist hard facets. Above this weak layer from 10-30 cm we were surprised to find a knife to 1 finger hard layer of crust. There was a firm, 1 finger hard slab from 55-70 cm that was on top of a 4-finger to fist hard layer of snow from 30-55 cm. The final 25 cm from 70-95 cm was soft, fist hard snow presumably from both new snow and recent wind loading. There was no break or propagation from ECT, even after multiple additional forceful hits. The snowpack was greatly affected by wind and varied tremendously over a short distance. Roughly 50 m away in a wind-exposed area there was little snowpack with rocks and grass visible.