Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Apr 7, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Clear and sunny with moderate northwest winds. Temperatures stayed cool in the teens to low 20s.
Snowpack
High-elevation northeast-facing slopes did see enough warm temperatures at the end of March to develop a layer cake of crusts interspersed with soft snow in the upper 30cm of the snowpack. Recent storm did not effectively drift into slabs, and it appears loading was ineffective and much was lost to sublimation. Any wind-drifted slabs are isolated in the terrain. There is some notable dust that came in with the very strong winds starting to resurface in spots. The mid pack is a very hard (P+ hand hardness) around a foot thick. The dry spell weak layer is buried around 2.5 feet deep and is still dry, but rounding, facets 2 to 3mm in size. The bottom of the snowpack is small (1mm) rounding facets 1F in hand hardness. Did not get any results in large column tests in the prominent dry-spell weak layer. I was able to get the block to fail with moderate force after removing about half of the 80cm thick overburden. This all suggests the weak layer is gaining strength and there are few areas where a rider can impact it. If you did find a shallower spot, the resulting avalanche would be large and dangerous.
Avalanche
Two wind slabs avalanches a couple/few days old on northeast facing slopes near the Thumb.