Front Range

Avalanche

Lenka Doskocil · Dec 3, 2020 · Front Range

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Weather

Clear and calm with temperatures in the mid to low twenties

Snowpack

Some cracking and whomping in isolated shaded areas above 10,500 feet Dug two pits, one in a location with minimal sun exposure and a second a few yards over in a sunny location around 11,000 ft on NE aspect. Pit one showed 6-8 inches of fresh snow sitting on top of a 1-3 inch dense crust (freeze-thaw or wind created) above a relatively uniform snowpack. That same buried crust was much less apparent in pit 2, although there was a buried layer of dense snow roughly halfway through the snowpack. Compression test in pit one--crack propagation after 2 full-arm taps, full failure after 6 . Pit one was located at the base of a small convex rollover, signs of slab formation (likely wind slab) in fresh snow layer on rollover

Avalanche

Signs of an old slide mostly covered by recent snowfall (see picture)