Front Range
AvalancheWes Calton · Feb 7, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
It was sunny with little to no wind for most of the morning though the wind was beginning to pick up in the afternoon.
Snowpack
Estimated 6-10” of new snow in the last 48 hours. We didn’t find any storm slabs on any aspects as the new snow was very light and unconsolidated. Some evidence of wind slab formation above treeline but, in general, we were surprised the above treeline snow wasn’t more wind affected (even in obvious wind affected areas the crust wasn’t too developed and it skied well). We were at 10k to 11.5k elevation on Northeast, East, and Southeast facing slopes. The southeast facing slopes were beginning to show some signs of sun (heavier snow, crust) but weren’t overly pronounced.
Avalanche
We observed several small, natural slides that probably occurred last night around montgomery pass (near Mr. Big, Swallow). None of them ran very far nor did they appear to step down. All of them appeared to occur on steeper, northeast and east facing slopes with slope angles around 35-40 degrees, at or above 11k elevation.