Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Mar 16, 2024 · Front Range
Snowpack
Storm totals ranged from about 1 meter on shaded northerly aspects to about 40cm on southern aspects that have already cooked down a lot. Any aspects that were solar-facing had a 2-inch melt-freeze crust on the surface. This was breakable with soft storm snow beneath it. Southerly aspects were about 2 meters deep and had a firm 10 cm thick crust under the storm snow, which was well bonded and unreactive. On aspects that had not yet been affected by the sun there was a change in density in the storm snow from 4finger back to fist. about 40cm deep. This layer was reactive in snowpits, but I was not able to get much movement on test slopes. The winds have drifted snow into unusual places and the surface of the snow had a very funky ripple effect that almost looked like water runnels.
Avalanche
Very few avalanches observed. Mostly wet loose/dry loose from steep rocky terrain. We did see a couple of larger slides coming out of SW facing terrain.