Front Range

Snowpack

Ron Simenhois · Dec 9, 2024 · Front Range

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Observation photo 1

Weather

Cold, overcast and windy in spots

Snowpack

A fragile crust layer, less than 1 cm thick, caps weak, faceted (FC) snow on southeast-to-south aspects. On northeast aspects, the crust is less prominent and found only in isolated areas. In some spots, I observed a P-hard slab layer near the surface. However, in these locations, the slab was too hard to allow crack initiation. In a snowpit where this slab was absent, ECT results showed ECTN. In contrast, in areas where the slab was present, ECTP 27 results—occurring about 25 cm below the surface—indicate that while propagation is possible to likely, crack initiation remains unlikely.