Front Range
AvalancheJacob Lilienfeld · Jan 28, 2023 · Front Range
Weather
The day was overcast and cold with intermittent snow. There was a strong West wind on ridge lines that was transporting snow onto East aspects.
Snowpack
There was a fair amount of new snow from the past 24 hours with an average of roughly 12’’ and up to two feet on wind loaded aspects. We found reactive storm slabs on a north facing test slope below tree line. We did not notice any collapsing or whoompfing in the deeper persistent layers
Avalanche
Towards the end of our day, we decided to ski cut a steep North facing convexity below tree line at roughly 10,400’, seeing if we could get anything to release. An avalanche broke below the cut with a crown roughly 80’ wide and 12’’ deep. It ran approximately 300ft. R2 D1.