Front Range
SnowpackTim Zander · May 11, 2013 · Front Range
Weather
Friday night: Cold at dark and a solid freeze by 3:30am when we got up. Saturday: By 10am eastern aspects were saturated and unstable. Very strong and warm sun. Little wind. In the afternoon scattered clouds and graupel/snow/hail storms intermittently at 11,400 ft. Snow storm with wind at night. Froze overnight Sunday: Very warm again, by 9:30 saw a wet loose snow avalanche on ESE slope above cliff at roughly 12k ft.
Snowpack
NE and N slopes are still immature. S of Lake Agnes between Richthofen and Mahler on N/NE aspects there was in some areas sun crust on top of softer snow underneath, other areas thin windslab on top of dry snow. Dry/soft snow was generally 3-4" thick before a firm layer. Presumably this dry snow was from the recent snow event in this area. NW ridge up Richthofen held snow, but it was pretty loose, booting was difficult. Around rocks snow was rotten and even more difficult booting. W couloirs off Richthofen held enough snow to ski SE aspect on Richthofen held good snow, reasonably mature, pleasant skiing. E aspect of ridge from Richthofen -> Teepee was very soft by 9:30 and much of the recent snow had sloughed off to the red dirt layer. Significant sloughing while skiing this line. E aspects of this range were very wet and warm NE aspects were a little dryer. S aspect of the saddle on Lead was mature and pleasant skiing. ENE aspects on Howard were not mature yet, OK booting, but a little scary. ENE off Howard was better, but still not quite mature. Loose wet avalanche at 9:30 was witnessed off Lead on ESE aspect. On NE/NNE aspects of Howard area small wind slabs were present on surface which exhibited minor cracking, but nothing further than 12" from skis