Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · Mar 26, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Snow squalls kept blowing through all day, and when they hit, it would snow at S-5 for 20 minutes and then stop. Winds were light from the northwest.
Snowpack
Below the treeline, the snowpack was about a meter deep and felt well consolidated and firm when probed. Near the treeline, snow depths increased close to 2 meters. I dug in a shallower area and found mostly good stability and rounding layers. A layer of facets was down about 15cm under the new snow failed cleanly in shovel tilt test but the slab above is too soft for action currently. This will be a layer to watch as the slab gains strength. At the base of the snowpack was well-developed depth hoar, which was starting to gain strength and was protected by a knife-hard layer. Above the treeline, the snowpack was a little shallower and highly variable across the terrain, depending on what the wind had done to the surface. On a northerly aspect, a melt-freeze crust that built after the last storm showed the most reactivity, possibly on facets beneath. Southeast aspects above the treeline also had this similar crust, although it was thicker and had little facets beneath, which allowed propagation with moderate force. This will be a layer to watch for. On this aspect, there was also a very pronounced ice lens about 50cm deep in the snowpack.