Aspen

Snowpack

Brandon Levy · Nov 17, 2018 · Aspen

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Weather

Scattered cloud cover at 9 am with increasing clouds and overcast by noon. Temperatures were in the mid twenties and increasing to low thirties with light SW wind becoming W around noon

Snowpack

The snowpack in the near treeline area of Richmond Ridge was generally weak with variable surface condition depending on aspect. Despite marked contrast between the 15-20cm ski penetration and boot penetration to ground (50cm), the mid pack 4F "slab" is faceting and losing strength. In instability tests an ECTX resulted from this lack of slab structure. Meanwhile the lower snowpack consists of a facet-crust-facet combo with the crust faceting. See snow profile for more information