Front Range
AvalancheMike Soucy · Mar 25, 2018 · Front Range
Weather
Increasing clouds, AM wind moderate from the W/SW, calm in the afternoon. Cold temps in the AM warming to near freezing by early afternoon.
Snowpack
Snowpack refroze well on Saturday night/Sunday morning all the way down to trailhead @ 9,500'. 8cm snow from Friday on top of preserved graupel. In places near and above TL, the new snow had some cohesion and was cracking around the skis. Another layer of small facets was found 30cm down and reactive in compression tests with sudden planar results. Generally strong and well structured snowpack observed below.
Avalanche
East face of Notchtop N-R2-D2. 12,000' heavily wind loaded terrain. Windslab initiated under the cornice and ran the full length of the face. Crown appeared ~30cm deep. 2x N-R3-D2 Ptarmigan Fingers. East facing heavily wind loaded terrain. Both initiated under cornices at 12,000' and ran 1,500' to the bottom of the basin. ~60cm deep crown. Wide propagation connecting trigger points suggests that this stepped down to persistent weak layers. Both slides likely ran Saturday AM.