Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler Kreston Roehrig · Mar 25, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
It was very warm and sunny with very little wind.
Snowpack
We started off looking at a westerly aspect near the treeline that was still cold snow with some crusts towards the top of the snowpack. In this area, there was an absence of a basal weak layer, and no results were obtained in the Extended Column Test. On a south-facing slope at 12000 feet around noon, the snow surface was just starting to moisten, but only the top few centimeters were becoming moist, and the snow below was cold and dry. There was a crust buried about 40cm deep that had some facets around it. We were able to get a propagating failure on this layer, but only with a Hulk blow after the 30 taps were up. This crust is strong currently. On a northerly aspect, the snow height averaged about 150 to 200 cm, where there was actually snow. We dug in a shallower area and got reactivity under an old wind slab but nothing on the basal weak layers, which were protected by about 2 feet of pencil and 1 finger of hard snow. It seems unlikely, but if you find the wrong area of the snowpack, the setup is still present for deeper avalanches. When we dropped to below treeline and looked at southerly aspects the top 20cm of the snowpack was wet above a very firm crust that will take some time to melt away. Below this the snowpack had already seen some water drainage and there were plenty of percolation columns. Towards the end of the day the snowpack was still supportive to travel on skis and the snowpack seemed to be draining but was not yet isothermic.