Front Range

Snowpack

Spencer Logan · May 7, 2010 · Front Range

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Weather

Cold early morning temperatures, quickly warmed below treeline. Winds kept snow/air cold near and above treeline. Scattered to broken clouds, with ceiling around 12500-13000'.

Snowpack

From the top down:
  • HN 2-3" of very nice stellars. Drifting up to 6" deep in pockets above treeline, usually topped with a thin 4F to 1F wind crust. Some SS activity in the new snow off very steep slopes above treeline, but I was unable to trigger anything
  • Crust and snirt (obvious dust) layer. This was variable, both in make-up and thickness. At the worst, the crust was less than an inch thick and not supportable. Most places the crust was 2 to 4 inches thick and frozen solid. Thinner crusts were recent snow above the snirt layer. Thicker crusts were melted or scoured down to the snirt layer
  • Old windslabs above treeline. Rounded, strong.
  • Loose rounded grains. Old facets that are well rounded, but have little strength. Most prevalent near and below treeline.