Front Range
AvalancheAustin DiVesta · Jan 21, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Warm with partial snow flurries for most of the morning.
Snowpack
Last week's storm seemed to add about a meter of snow to most slopes. Snow heights varied from 110 cm on southerly-facing slopes to over 175 on northerly slopes. We are not out of the woods yet. Weak snow still exists about a meter from the surface on both aspects I dug on today. Meanwhile, the upper meter seems somewhat "right-side up," with weak, soft snow on top and a harder layer towards the bottom. All that rests on extremely weak facets—southerlies melt-freeze crust/facet combination, which I don't see going away anytime soon. The Extended Coloum Test produced hard propagating results in both pits. On the northeast-facing slope, this was down about 90 cm from the surface on the January 4th facet layer. The south-facing slope of this curst/facet combination was down 80cm, which had propagating results.
Avalanche
I saw several avalanches at all aspects and elevations today. At least one was human-triggered by the 90s, which was previously coded.