Front Range
AvalancheRyan Lewthwaite · Feb 3, 2020 · Front Range
Weather
A clear start to the morning with 15F, no clouds and calm southwest winds. Around 14:00 the clouds came in thick, with little to no wind and turned on the snow faucet. By the time we had left the trail there was over 2 inches of new snow and it is continuing to snow at an appreciable rate of S5.
Snowpack
The snowpack below treeline is very loose with mostly facetted grains to the ground. Sun exposed slopes have prominent melt-freeze crusts that can be easily broken but still ski grabby. Near treeline slopes are the thickest on aspects facing north and east while south and west aspects have been substantially wind firmed. Areas with a finger hard wind-packed layer over soft snow could prove to be troubling with new snow loads. Todays snowpit was dug on a 31 degree slope near treeline adjacent to an R2D2 avalanche from Thursday evening. The layer of concern was around 30 cm deep where decomposing fragments interface with finger hard facets. All tests confirmed this layer is stubborn to react but the grains still allow for snowpack collapses.
Avalanche
On an east aspect near treeline I found an old R2D2 avalanche from 1/26. The snowpack near ground was unconsolidated depth hoar and the slab propagated amidst small trees and rocks. The extent of the debris went almost 750 feet down slope with several intact chunks of hard slab.