Front Range
AvalancheAndy Nelson · Jan 7, 2022 · Front Range
Weather
Temperatures in the low 20s, clear skies, moderate to strong winds out of the WSW with blowing snow and higher gusts experienced at ridge top. No new snow. Nice visibility.
Snowpack
HS near treeline ranges from 150-200cm. Freshly drifted snow rests on top of the new storm snow, which is around 4F in hardness. This is sitting on the Dec snow layers that are around 1F. Depth hoar/facets at the ground still present at 4F-/F+. I observed a SP fracture at CT13 45cm down (new storm snow). This went at ECTN13.
Avalanche
Lots of activity today - so apologies if anyone has reported these. I observed from the north to south of the Medicine Bow range several avalanches, above and near treeline. I observed a crown line on an east facing bowl around 11,000 on Cameron Peak (guessing R2, D2) A large avalanche released directly south of Montgomery Bowl, in the on a easterly/ESE aspect around the area sometimes called the Cookie Chutes (R4, D2? - this one is large) I observed three avalanches on South Diamond Peak: Ptarmigan (R4, D2 - I would consider the nearly the whole Ptarmigan path to have slid). Pabst (R2, D2 - a large portion of hangfire/slab exists above) and Taster's Choice (R2, D2 - still a portion of tasters that did not slide) both avalanched.