Front Range

Snowpack

Nathan Boyer-Rechlin · Dec 5, 2025 · Front Range

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Weather

At 3pm, there was almost no wind and it was snowing at the bear lake parking lot. There was a moderate (by RMNP standards) west wind on dream lake and gusty SW wind on Emerald Lake. Winds were picking up around 4:30.

Snowpack

I dug a quick pit in a wind deposited, but fairly protected E facing area at 10,150ft (DT apron trees). The snowpack in this location was 90 cm deep. There were two notable weak layers, about 10cm of facets (fist) in the mid pack and about 5cm of facets (fist +) at the bottom of the snowpack. Above these layers sat 4f slab, with about 15 cm of fresh snow on top. I did not conduct any stability tests. Based on pole probing, this structure seemed indicative of average to wind deposited areas. Thinner areas had a thin basal facet layer with consolidated snow in the midpack. 15cm of fresh snow sat on top of 10cm of 4f slab