Aspen
SnowpackDylan Craaybeek · Mar 13, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Temperatures in the low 20's in Ashcroft around 9:30 AM with Scattered clouds and Calm. Clouds cleared to Few throughout the day, temperatures warmed to above freezing at 11,000 feet by 2:00 PM, and winds increased blowing Light with Moderate gusts after noon. Light snow transport along the ridgeline with Moderate snow transport visible along the Castle Peak and Cathedral Peak ridgelines.
Snowpack
Below the treeline northerly slopes hold a weak (F to 4F hard) thin (20-30cm) slab on top of very weak (F- hard) facets. The slab was neither thick enough nor hard enough to propagate failures of the weak layer across long column tests. No collapses were experience while traveling below the treeline. The southern half of the compass is developing a melt-freeze crust (MFcr) on the surface snow. Below the newly developed MFcr around 10-20 cm of decomposing fragmented and broken precipitation particles as well as rounded grains rest on top of a thick (5-10cm) MFcr. Large (2mm) rounding facets lie below that MFcr. Slopes below the treeline had wet to very-wet surface snow by 3:00 PM. Near and above the treeline northerly continue to show obvious signs of instability. Several collapses with shooting cracks traveling around 100 feet away from the trigger point were observed on northwest and northeast-facing slopes with similar but observations but less frequent and smaller collapses on east-facing slopes. The slab near the treeline is around 30-50cm thick, twice as thick on wind-loaded slopes, and rests on very weak (F- hard) well-developed, large faceted grains. One very large collapse on a northeast-facing slope around 11,700 feet slid several inches downslope on a 38 degree slope before arresting. Had this slope been more open this would have likely been a large avalanche.