Front Range
AvalancheRyan Lewthwaite, Jason Konigsberg · Nov 12, 2019 · Front Range
Weather
Clear with light winds from the South.
Snowpack
A short burst of moisture last Sunday night dropped a half inch to an inch of new snow in the Jones Pass area. This new snow was found as graupel in some areas. We observed a newly formed slab of wind drifted snow as strong winds transported this recent snow into 2 to 4 inch slabs. Thin slabs were breakable underfoot and slid cleanly in snowpits on a softer snow layer below but we did not observe any shooting cracks or propagation in stability tests. People may be able to trigger small, shallow, mostly harmless Wind Slab avalanches on isolated, north through east aspects. The snowpack on north aspects near & below treeline is riddled with faceted layers of varying hardness. We found the weakest and softest of the faceted layers about 6 inches down from the surface. Near the ground there is a layer of 1 to 2 mm faceted crystals that is just changing into small depth hoar. The snow crystals are showing some striations but are in the very early depth hoar development stage. This basal layer was also relatively thin, three to four inches thick. A storm with twelve inches of snow would produce small natural avalanches on specific slopes.--- Observations from a southeast aspect, above treeline, revealed a thick, knife-hard, melt-freeze crust directly below the newly wind-drifted slab. Below this firm crust, a layer of unconsolidated facets around 4" thick was found. It is important to note that while many southerly aspects have melted back to bare ground, south and southeast slopes above treeline are still holding snow. These southerly high-elevation slopes will be a player in our Persistent Slab avalanche problem when winter commences.
Avalanche
No new avalanches