Aspen

Avalanche

blase reardon · Feb 1, 2014 · Aspen

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Weather

Clouds broke but never fully cleared. Some clouds in valley. Eerily calm. Cold.

Snowpack

Below treeline, 20-30" storm snow sitting on obviously weak facets and surface hoar. Storm snow 4F hardness for bottom 1/3; F hardness above. PWL F hardness. 1-2 mm facets.

Avalanche

Hundreds of small sluffs/ point releases. Dozens of crowns visible below treeline. Just about every open, easterly slope had a crown, w many visible on westerly slopes. An 18" high crown was visible in the Middle Earth trees, in the opening skied by almost every party that exits that way. So much for skier compaction. Most looked to be 18-24" high. Some were covered w up to 6" of new snow, but most looked fresh and it appeared slides failed at end of storm. Crowns at road level breaking at/ just below old/ new snow interface. Longer/ wider crowns visible on either side of Raspberry RIdge. At least one slide on the west side of the ridge broke into older, deeper layers as it ran.