Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · May 9, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Winds were mostly calm under clear skies.
Snowpack
Below the treeline and on southerly aspects at all elevations, there was a thick (15-20cm) melt-freeze crust at the surface. This crust was still intact at 11 am however, the surface was softening. Below the crust, there were large wet grains all the way to the ground, which were fist hard. Once the surface crust breaks down slides could gouge deeply. In this same basin, a cornice had dropped and the resulting avalanche went to the ground. On northerly aspects, the recent water had just wetted the top 15-20cm of the snow. Beneath this was a hard melt-freeze crust and firm rounded grains beneath that. The melt-freeze crust was almost impossible to break through with a shovel, and there were no facets above or below it.
Avalanche
The avalanches I saw had been previously coded but I added a few extra photos. https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-report/4bdec3b5-34e6-4ad4-943e-91a0af0f2479