Weather
A properly cold January day in the headwaters of the Colorado. The temperature at the truck when I left was -10F. However, the clear skies and sun made it a bit warmer until some wind picked up along the ridgeline.
Snowpack
While I didn’t notice any significant avalanches throughout the Never Summer Mountains, the snowpack structure is still spooky. This side differs significantly from the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park, with much shallower snowpack and surprisingly less wind. Most slabs I noticed today were 4 Finger to 1 Finger in hardness that rested on older, weaker snow. I didn’t find many places deeper than 140cm, even in some wind-drifted spots. In both of the snow pits I dug today, I got propagating results under these slabs on a layer of facets. I dug on a below treeline east-facing slope with 106cm of snow and a south-facing slope near treeline with a depth of 65cm.
Avalanche
Lots of Loose Dry avalanches in extreme terrain around Bake Mountain, Mount Nimbus, and Mount Stratus.