Aspen
SnowpackMatt Huber · Mar 23, 2020 · Aspen
Weather
Cloud cover increased through out the morning with mostly overcast skies by noon. Southwest winds increased on ridgetops early afternoon, with only the highest peaks flagged with blowing snow. Temperatures remained below freezing for the trip but snow surfaces softened below treeline late in the morning.
Snowpack
At the hairpin turn at Upper Lost Mans, the snowpack is 140 cm deep on the road. On a southwest-facing slope at 11,600 feet, the snowpack is about 1 meter deep with the top 15 cm recent storm snow. A thin layer of facets can be seen above the interface, producing easy non-propagating results with extended column tests. More concerning is the interface at 40 cm from the ground. The depth hoar below is completely saturated and wet, everything above is melt forms that have refrozen and is pencil to knife hard. Propagating extended column tests were seen on isolation and with only a few taps from the wrist. On northerly slopes around the same elevation, I was unable to find the saturated depth hoar or a snowpack that has undergone a complete melt freeze cycle. The 3/18 crust-facet combination is visible to the naked eye, although stubborn.