Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Jan 17, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
It was snowing S-2 (close to one inch an hour) for the duration of our tour and we returned to about four inches of accumulation on the truck. Winds were strong from the west at the trailhead but seemed swirly and even NE for a while.
Snowpack
We observed mostly below the treeline, where there is now consistently over one meter of snow. Below the treeline, on a northeast slope, the new snow was right side up and well bonded to the old layers below. However, when we looked at the crown of an avalanche on an ESE-facing slope, it had failed on facets above a two to three-inch thick melt-freeze crust that is now buried about two to three feet deep. During the course of the day we observed only localized cracking in the storm snow and only one collapse. When we got to near treeline, we observed a few natural avalanches, generally on northerly or northeasterly slopes with crowns about 1 meter deep. These all looked like they failed on the new old interface and didn't step down to deeper weak layers. These were estimated to have run on MLK day or maybe in the wind event that followed it.