Front Range
AvalancheIan Fowler · Apr 3, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
Calm winds and warm temps were the theme of the day. It was mostly cloudy but sun was just enough to get some greenhouse effect happening with low fog.
Snowpack
Below treeline at the snotel site I probed 150 to 170 cm of snow. The snow below treeline felt generally homogenous to a ski pole probe and was damp (perfect for snowballs) in the top 30cm. On a southerly aspect below treeline there was a 15cm (six-inch) crust beneath a similar amount of decomposing and rounded snow. We observed north through east to south aspects right at treeline above Emerald Lake. Northerly aspects had over 300cm of snow and we were unable to find any weak layers or crusts in this cold area of the valley. As we moved higher onto an easterly aspect we did start to experience harder wind-drifted snow which came out with some resistance in a hand shear. A little lower on an easterly aspects there were multiple ice layers in the upper meter, of the 3 meter snowpack, but in extended column tests there were no propagating results on any of these layers and between each ice layer were cold dry rounds. We did find a percolation column down almost 90cm in this location but our pit location was maybe a little close to some rocks that might have affected waterflow and melting. These crusts started to appear just north of east and as we traveled onto southerly aspects there was an even thicker stout crust 25cm below the surface that was super supportive and it is hard to imagine anything stepping below it.
Avalanche
In high elevation southeasterly slopes there were 3 small avalanches that looked to have crowns less than 1 foot thick.