Front Range

Scattered skies with strong west winds. Near-freezing temperatures. No new snow.

Below treeline, the height of snow ranged from 60-100cm. Climbing higher into near treeline terrain, much of the snow had been greatly wind effected and snow depths varied from 30-115cm. Walking around with my probe out it was hard to find consistent depths across spans greater than 50 feet. Where I did find areas that seemed to be representative of the snowpack, I found an 18-26cm thick fairly rounded four-finger slab atop less cohesive faceted grains. Extended column tests fractured with moderate or hard taps at this slab/facet layer interface in three separate snowpits on NNE, E, and SE aspects near-treeline, but did not propagate. Beneath this weak layer, the snowpack became progressively harder until near the ground where larger grained facets and depth hoar remain.