Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Apr 2, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
Weather was nicer than expected and winds dropped during the day with only occasional stronger gusts.
Snowpack
There was a surprising amount of new snow. 10 inches below the treeline, increasing to 2 feet on more wind-drifted features. On north through east aspects, this snow was well bonded to the melt-freeze crust below, but as we wrapped around a little more to the southeast, the snow was bonded poorly, and the skin track would wash out as we ascended. On the southern aspects, the snow was denser due to the brief periods of sun that we experienced, and there was a slightly more pronounced surface slab. Near Treeline, at around 11,000 feet, we found many wind-loaded features. Due to north aspects, the wind slabs were just a couple of inches thick, but features with a little more northeast had about a foot of wind-slab. There was very little cracking in the snow until you got to about 35 degrees steepness, and nothing would move until closer to 40 degrees. Avalanches were failing on a new snow/graupel instability that was about 30cm deep and about 10-15cm above a melt-freeze crust. I did not identify any persistent grains at these interfaces, and avalanches were confined by the terrain features.