Front Range

It was sunny and warm in the morning and then clouded up in the afternoon.

Below treeline the snowpack is pretty burnt out and tired looking. Once the overnight crust broke down ski penetration was to the ground unless you were on the trail. The first mile from the trailhead I was walking as the trail was mostly dry. Near Treeline I dug on a ENE aspect. The snow height varied from about 120cm to about 200cm. The top 5cm of the snowpack had become wet today and water had penetrated down about 20cm from the surface. Below this the snowpack was all pencil and 1 finger rounds that had yet to see much water. Above treeline on a northeast aspect at 11,700feet I dug profiles where the snow was about 65cm deep and just over a meter. The water had penetrated through much of the snowpack and appeared to be pooling above a crust just above the basal facets. The depth hoar was wet to moist and appeared very weak. In Extended Column Tests and Propagation Saw Tests the column was failing in the basal weak layers. Results were moderate in the shallow snowpack and hard in the deeper snowpack. The midpack was really strong with some ice layers and rounds that were mostly 1 finger or harder. It seems like while these crusts are maintained due to a freeze danger will be low but as they break down the danger will rise. Deeper snowpacks will be safer. On a north aspect at around 11600 feet the snowpack was close to 2 meters deep and was still cold throughout without having any water filtering through yet.