Front Range
AvalancheFritz Sperry · Nov 2, 2017 · Front Range
Weather
Windy and partly cloudy. Temps around freezing at the elevation of the slide. Noticeably warmer when the wind died down and the sun came out, almost springlike
Snowpack
When my partner suggested this line I was immediately on guard considering its history. You never know till you go though so let's go for a walk and see what we'd find. We got to the memorial and started making our way up the thin trees. I dug a couple hand pits and found a reactive 3cm wind slab on top of 40cm snowpack. about 20cm down I got a failure with a little effort. We got to the ridge and discussed our options. The margin of the trees would be good and offer the best snow. e mentioned the first gully and thought it might be reactive since that upper layer would be deeper and more of the surface hoar from last Friday would have survived. It was pretty low angle though so we thought we'd give it a look. We made a plan for how to ski cut it and discussed safe exits should the slope rip out. I descended first and avoided the entrance to the gully by skiing onto the windward rib to skier's right. My partner dropped in and executed a ski cut above the covexity. The entrance to the gully spider webbed and slid approximately 300'. The slide was about 60' wide at it's widest, debris were 3' deep at their maximum. After the slide I skied across the path and to the lower angled trees. I got shooting cracks on this traverse. We went back up and did a CT test on the crown area. We got a CT2 Q1 we didn't bother doing and ECT since obviously it propagates. There were two failure planes on the CT test, the upper one was 15cm thick of new snow and failed on buried surface hoar. The second was 30cm down and failed on basal facets. The pack was 50cm deep at the crown. Fist density throughout the snowpack. We kept skiing and summitted Sniktau skiing the West Rib of Sheep Creek. The margins of the trees skied very well.
Avalanche
No activity noted in the zone.