Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Apr 7, 2025 · Front Range
Weather
Strong winds were blowing and transporting snow. In the morning these appeared to come from the northwest and they switched to southwest by 5pm.
Snowpack
The snowpack held up well below treeline throughout the day, with winds keeping surfaces cool. In the morning, boot penetration was about 15cm into cold snow, and by the end of the day, it was similar, but the surface snow was wet. In thick trees and northerly aspects, there was still powdery snow at the surface. Northerly aspects above treeline had been blown by the wind, and there was a lot of variation. In a couple of gullies, the left sides were wind-loaded, yet the gully's center and northwest aspect were wind-hammered with raised tracks and sastrugi. There were no signs of warming in the surface snow on these aspects, and I was able to find cold preserved (wind-affected) snow all day. There was very little shedding from northerly aspects. Easterly aspects held the most obvious signs of wind slabs. In one profile I dug at 11,100 feet I was getting reactivity in Extended Column Tests below a thin melt-freeze crust beneath the storm snow. This was failing on old snow and some rounding facets. In a higher quick pit at 12,000 feet, I found an upside-down surface snowpack, but the crust was absent. I also saw an avalanche on this aspect triggered by a cornice fall. The crown was only 6 to 12 inches deep and had not propagated beyond a localized area. Towards the end of the day, east through southeast to south aspects had developed a thin 2 to 3-inch melt-freeze crust. This was the only sign of meltwater at higher elevations and is not much of a problem going forward, but it made for tricky skiing at the end of a long day.