Hanging Valley

We toured out to Hanging Valley to try and find a deeper and sheltered snowpack. We found a snowpack similar to the rest of the front range, very variable and with concerning structure. We dug a pit at our high point of 3600' on a NE aspect. In our pit we found a largely faceted snowpack and got an stubborn propagating result (ECTP23) on a layer of facets below a soft wind slab 1ft down from the surface. Snow surfaces have faceted out throughout the area during this long high pressure period making the skiing better but will mean trouble for the next round of wind and snowfall. The poor structure that is widespread in the front range continues to be concerning as well. We found the best skiing today in the valley where the snow has been protected from winds and has continued to soften. 

Observed evidence of some old natural avalanches in the Hanging Valley area. Mostly looked to have been caused by rapid wind loading in late January and/or natural cornice falls. Pictures attached.

We toured back into Hanging Valley to see if it has been seeing less wind affect and see if zones deeper in the range hold more snow. Thin coverage was prevelent and a highly variable snowpack similar to the rest of the front range exists in Hanging Valley. We dug a pit to observe struture and run stability tests in a lightly cross-loaded gully that represents the skiable terrain of the area. We found a highly faceted snowpack with a soft faceting wind slab overlaying two rain crusts and ~2ft of facets at the ground. In an extened collumn test we got ECTP23 on facets below a wind slab 1ft down from the surface. 

Surface conditions were soft in the valley and thin breakable wind skin to the sides.