Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · May 7, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Partly to mostly cloudy skies with very warm air temperatures climbing into the 40s even in the alpine. Southwest winds strengthened as the day progressed and became quite gusty by mid day.
Snowpack
The continuing warm weather with weak overnight freezes is gradually softening the 30cm thick stack of crusts in the upper snowpack. This is providing a bit more cohensionless surface snow and Loose Wet avalanches grew in size compared to previous days. Conditions we're markedly more wet today than on Friday. Ski penetration was to ground below 11,000 ft in the timber by noon. We found moist surface snow to almost 13,000 feet even on northerly-facing terrain. Size D1 Loose Wet avalanches relased naturally out of steep west, east, and northeast-facing slopes as high as 13,500 ft. There is still a little bit of dry snow on north aspects above around 13,000 ft. Here we found thin 2 inch thick wind-drifted slabs but couldn't get anything to move with ski pressure. Basal facets are dry above 13,0000 ft on north-facing slopes, but show significant rounding, and it's unlikely we'll see avalanches breaking on this layer. We also witnessed one decent chunk of cornice crack (sounded like a thunder clap) and release on a east-facing slope.
Avalanche
Several Loose Wet avalanches released naturally in the alpine along with a decent sized chunk of cornice on an east-facing slopes.