Front Range
SnowpackAustin DiVesta Ian Fowler · Nov 22, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
A fine day. There was plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures that were pleasant with the light to moderate winds out of the west.
Snowpack
Below treeline was mainly faceted, which will become a problem later in the season as we continue to build the snowpack there. Near treeline was a mixed bag of conditions. While some areas, you could not penetrate on skis then next step you’d sink to the ground. Both my partner and I dug pits adjacent to each other about 50 feet apart to show the spatial distribution on this near treeline area. In his pit, he had mostly soft, weak, faceted snow. He did not get propagating results with an Extended Column Test but a break in the 4 finger slab on 17 taps. My snow pit had a 1-Finger hard layer about 10cm thick resting on top of 60cm of weak snow. My Extended Column Test propagated easily (ECTP5 at 20cm from the ground). While we got different results on the same layer, it shows that the more slab we have on top of this weak layer, the easier it’ll be to trigger an avalanche. This is something to pay attention to as we will continue to get more snow next week and build a slab that rests on top of this weak snow that is near the ground.