The below treeline snowpack is letting you know dangerous conditions exist. I lost count of how many booming collapses I encountered when I stepped off the road/skin track. I watch trees shake over 200 feet from where I triggered the collapse. Snow height varied considerably around below treeline from 30cm to about 100cm. The story is the same no matter the aspect travel in the below treeline, the holiday snow created a slab that rests on top of the older, weaker snow and is talkative. As I moved up towards near treeline and above, the snowpack became less talkative, but I still noticed some localized collapsing, even on south-facing slopes. North through northeast to southeast-facing slopes all looked primed and ready to slide. I did not want to get anywhere near these slopes. Looking around the Never Summer Mountain, I could not see any recent slab avalanches to the north or west. I noticed that the extreme terrain around Mount Nimbus, Baker Mountain, and Mount Stratus had long-running Dry Loose avalanches. Nothing, though, was breaking into a deeper layer.

Never Summer Mountain Range
West side of Rocky Mountain National Park.

I parked around the Holzworth Homestead site then followed the road up towards Green Knoll.

Lots of Loose Dry avalanches in extreme terrain around Bake Mountain, Mount Nimbus, and Mount Stratus.

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.

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.