Front Range

Avalanche

Patrick Miller · Dec 9, 2022 · Front Range

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Weather

Sunny with wind increasing winds later in the morning. The wind had compressed and stiffened the snow from the day before

Snowpack

Sugar facets close to the ground with a harder layer that was stiffer than the day before with wind effective snow on the surface.

Avalanche

We had notices several avalanches from the parking lot before we headed out. None of them had been there the day before. As we toured out we noticed even more avalanches that had run at some point from mid day yesterday to this morning. We climbed away from the creek to a bench of safety. As we climbed we heard a large boom and saw an avalanche running several 100 yards away from the ridge. It ran wide compared to the path but stopped at a bench and did not continue to the creek. Could not tell if we triggered it from our location or if it ran natural like the path next to it had the night before.