Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Feb 20, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
Warm and windy with a ground blizzard at times.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is deep close to or over 2 meters with basal weak layers down about 160cm. These weak layers appear to be rounding and were only reactive in a Propagation Saw Test which we found out was done over a boulder that significantly weakened the snow in a very localized areas. Deep Tap Tests did nothing. At the top end of below treeline close to the ridge we found large cornices and tender wind-slabs. These slabs gave way to very little pressure but never connected much terrain, max size a pickle ball court, even with a large cornice drop. All minilanches ran at about 30cm depth and were still in fist hard snow. Winds may continue to build these slabs and size could still increase. Near/Above treeline (the Dragons Tail Apron is only at 10600-feet but has no trees) the wind was building slabs which were only 4finger hard but reactive in Extended Column Tests. The weak layer was a layer of Stella's and a density change from 4fingers to fist.
Avalanche
We only saw debris from one avalanche reported during the storm that was almost completely filled back in. I think if anything else ran it would have been filled in by wind and snow.