Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Apr 7, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
It was a beautiful day. Although the skies were clear it still felt cold and there was a light breeze from the southwest.
Snowpack
On southeast through east to northerly slopes above treeline the snowpack was generally the right side up. In some areas meters of pencil hard (almost unprobeable) snow lay below the new storm snow. At the surface there was some slab formation but it didn't seem able to propagate far from skis. The only crust I was able to find was actually on a northeast aspect and this was just below the dust layer. Small cornice drops produced little in the way of results. By the end of the day southerlies had heated up and will likely have a zipper crust. Northerly aspects are still holding cold dry snow at the surface. In all tests and looking around various crusts I was unable to find much in the way of facets. The cornices in the Current Creek headwall are large and still frozen but I would give them a wide birth from below and above.
Avalanche
A few small loose wet avalanches from steep southerly terrain and one small loose dry from northwesterly terrain.