Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Apr 6, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
The temperatures were in the teens with moderate with strong wind gusts from the northwest. Cloud cover was broken with the sun poking out now and then. Light snow showers for about 15 minutes, then stopped.
Snowpack
Today, I mainly traveled on northeast to southeast-facing terrain below treeline and near treeline. I found about two to four inches of new snow below treeline that sits on a very thick melt-freeze crust. This crust was supportable on more east through southeast terrain, but when you moved to anything with more of a northerly tilt, you would start to see localized cracking underfoot right. I did not notice any large-scale cracking or collapsing below treeline. Once I started gaining elevation, I found variable snow-surface conditions from soft new snow to a thick melt-freeze crust, making for challenging skinning. I noticed that areas a little more sheltered from the wind had a soft snow surface. I dug a snowpit profile on an east-facing slope at around 11,700ft and found a snow height of 245cm. I found the top 50-60cm had three different melt-freeze crusts from the last month's warm-ups. I was able to get medium-hard propagation observations (ECTP14) below the most recent crust that broke on top of some Near Surface Facets. Below the third crust, I found a healing snowpack in the upper 150cm (I did not dig to the ground). Yesterday’s winds did a number on the more exposed areas near treeline and above treeline. Most of the places I traveled were stripped of snow, while the wind started to erode the snow surface in the alpine. I noticed no signs of instability besides a large avalanche on an east-facing alpine slope that ran at the ground within the last couple of days.
Avalanche
I saw one large avalanche on an east-facing slope above treeline on the Current Creek Headwall that most likely ran in the last couple of days.