Front Range

Snowpack

N ridge where we ascended was very wind affected and variable. Very large drifts were adjacent to very thin areas. Snow has largely been stripped from this area,with the rest redistributed around boulders, terrain irregularities and vegetation. Stomping on numerous drifts and test slopes yielded no results. Avg HS, less than one meter. The adjacent NE facing slopes had around 2 meters of snow on average. The snowpack here was characterized by ~30 cm of F hard DF and NSF, with ~1 meter thick 4F-1F layer, resting on top of much softer snow. Ski Pen 20cm, Foot pen 40cm. No wind crust or hard windslab on these well below ridgeline NE aspects. Snow was getting sticky even on N aspects. Skin wax mandatory, but no melt layer formation on N or NE aspects. No current signs of instability noted except for rollerballs and tiny loose wet slides coming off of exposed rock bands. There is an ever-thickening slab in the midpack that seems to be bridging well over the depth hoar, but hard to say how much of a load it would take to tip the balance here.