Front Range
SnowpackJason Konigsberg · Apr 23, 2021 · Front Range
Weather
Skies were sunny in the morning clouding up in afternoon, still with breaks of sun. By 1 PM cloud cover increased and snowfall started with periods of up to an inch per hour. This was short-lived and sky cover started to decrease again by 3 PM.
Snowpack
Near and above treeline there is about 12 inches of snow on top of a faceted layer on top of a melt freeze crust. North-facing slopes have the same structure minus the melt freeze crust. The snow surface on east-facing slopes got slightly moist this morning as we encountered a thin surface crust after the clouds moved in. Most other aspects stayed dry except for below treeline where snow was moist and again baked down to just a few inches. On our exit at 3 PM we skied dry snow on a southwest and west-facing slope. We got one small collapse on a wind-loaded west-facing feature. We also got small, shallow shooting cracks in the most recent snow as winds drifted snow during the snow squall at 1 PM.