Front Range
AvalancheRyan Lewthwaite · Apr 5, 2020 · Front Range
Weather
A warm afternoon with scattered clouds and 44F degrees. The winds were calm from the southwest and no new snow or blowing snow.
Snowpack
We are transitioning to a springlike snowpack with the help of warm temperatures and prolonged sun. A shallow overnight refreeze of the snow meant the surface snow was a breakable crust. By one o'clock the surface snow was melting allowing for loose wet avalanches on slopes over 30 degrees. On an east aspect near treeline the snowpack has a melt-freeze/ facet crust combo down 20cm, which is the layer of concern. With hard forces this weak layer can collapse or act as a bed surface for small loose wet avalanches. The lower half of the snowpack consists of unconsolidated rounding facets and depth hoar. There is an unlikely chance that propagation could occur in the surface slab (ECTX). I found loose and weak snow grains near the surface within a cornice feature.
Avalanche
After 1:00pm small loose wet avalanches were easy to trigger on slopes over 30 degrees. Although small and manageable these slow moving avalanches are heavy and could pull you into unintended terrain. The push-alanche style slide entrains loose wet surface snow and were only running up to 50ft down-slope.