Most slopes below 10,600ft were unsupportable to both snow machine and foot. We were fully throttled, even on flat meadows, and could not climb anything steeper than about 15 degrees, which didn’t already have a solid track. A surface hoar layer in lower meadows formed mainly along the creek/river bottoms. It didn’t look like it was very widespread or disappeared quickly as the sun hit the southerly-facing slopes. The snowpack becomes much more supportable after getting higher in elevation and makes for easier travel. We only saw one small recent avalanche that likely ran within the last few days. This zone is slightly deeper than where I was around Gravel Mountain the other day but weak. I felt somewhat similar to the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, where I was a couple of weeks ago.

Never Summers

Parked at the Forest Boundary then followed the Illinois River

A weak snowpack exists at pretty much all aspects below and near treeline. We did not get into the alpine today, but looking around suggests that it is wind-affected. We got collapsing pretty much everywhere we went today in lower elevation meadows. You could watch the cracks shoot out around and feel the snowpack collapse. This was not isolated to specific slopes but widespread on all slopes.

We targeted a north-facing slope around 10,900ft. We found a snow height of 137cm. We were looking for an upper-level weak layer within the snowpack but could not locate it here. Where we did get propagating Extended Column Tests was what seemed to be a density change within the last storm cycle with one hit from the elbow (ECTP11 down 35cm). This area wasn’t affected by the wind but still had a 1-finger hard lab that rested on top of weaker, older snow. I was curious if I would get any further propagation after the initial result, and I did after five taps from the shoulder on the weak basal layer, which formed the bottom third of the snowpack.

We were able to dig another snowpit on more south-facing slope (with some slight west in it). We collapsed the area after my partner entered the slope after me, and the snowpack settled about three to six inches. Here, we found plenty of melt-freeze crusts with faceted snow sandwiched between them. We found the new upper snowpack persistent weak layer in this pit. At the moment, it is not a concern but something to pay attention to. What struck us in this snowpit was the thick melt-freeze crust/facet sandwich around 35cm from the ground. This is where we got easy propagating results (ECTP9 at 20cm from the ground).

Another sensational Colorado Bluebird Day. We had cold temperatures on our trail ride into our zone and very pleasant warm weather the rest of the day.