Front Range
AvalancheMike Cooperstein, Ron Simenhois · May 9, 2017 · Front Range
Weather
Skies started broken and then storms started to roll in around 3:00 p.m. some light graupel up high at times and light snow turning to rain in the valleys. Warm temps despite the lack of sun.
Snowpack
On southerly and easterly aspects we found a few inches of wet snow at the surface with a harder crust layer 6-8 inches deep. Most of the snowpack is moist; however, there is no free water moving below the surface wet layer. On steep northerly-facing aspects there are pockets that do not support the weight of a skier, even while standing on your skies, and you fall to the ground. The structure on steep rocky northerly-facing slopes is very concerning at the moment.
Avalanche
No new natural avalanche activity was noted. It was easy to start small loose wet slides 4-6 inches deep in the surface snow in steep areas. These slides did not gouge down on most aspects. On steep northerly facing slopes we were able to trigger some small wet slab avalanches that failed at the ground. These slides were isolated to rocky areas or areas near trees.