Front Range
SnowpackCasey Dowling · Apr 29, 2011 · Front Range
Weather
Overcast with consistent moderate snowfall with periods of heavy snowfall.
Snowpack
32 degree ESE slope around treeline. Dug an "eerie" pit 1.5 m deep. About 2 cm of fresh snow at the top. The top 40 cm of snow consisted of inter-bedded sun crusts and facets. 4 crust layers in all. Below the bottom most crust was a 10 cm thick layer of rounded, consolidated snow. Below this was a thick weak layer of facets ranging from 2 to 3 mm in size. A bit spooky. This layer ran down and into the bottom of the pit. An isolated column compression test failed with 1 elbow tap 85 cm below the surface. Isolated a 1m by 30 cm block for compression and propagation test. Failed at 3 shoulder hits. No propagation observed. Surprised by the results but concluded the upper sun crusts were effectively bridging and dispersing the force. Temperatures in the snow pack varied form 0.42 C at the surface to 0.32 C at the base of the pit. No temperature gradients were observed near the crusts. We slope cut the slope many times on skis and could not get it to fail. We concluded that the inter-layered sun crusts were effectively supporting the weight but if the sun came out, wet slabs running on the deeper facets could be a major concern.