Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 8, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Cold morning (1 Fahrenheit) at the trailhead around 9:15. Temperatures felt warmer in the sun with clear skies all day but I was quickly reminded how cold it was every time I went into the shade. Mostly calm with some light westerly winds picking up around 15:00 above 12,000 feet.
Snowpack
Below about 10,000 feet the slab lacks any cohesion and the trail breaking was brutal with ski penetration almost to the ground and snowpack tests showing non-propagating failures on the December dry spell layer. Once I reached ridgeline and the slab was more cohesive from wind-loading and more snow in general, I was constantly getting terrain feature to slopes scale collapses on most meadows I crossed facing northwest through north to east. The height of snow averaged around 80-110 cm with the slab being about 30-50cm thick. Snowpack tests dug where I triggered small collapses showed extended column tests failing on less than 3 taps every time and a mix of slab fracture and end results in propagation saw tests. Several test pits dug on slopes where I did not trigger any collapses showed a mix of non-propagating failures in extended column tests. While all of these snowpits and snowpack tests are very useful data collection tools the most relevant and important piece of information was the multiple-slope wide collapse and associated crack on an east-facing slope on the line of the near treeline and above treeline elevation bands.
Avalanche
Surprisingly the avalanche path where I triggered a very large collapse and shooting crack that crosses multiple slopes did not slide. This was the east face of a start zone that had not slid yet this season, the northeast-facing side of the start zone slid during the Thanksgiving avalanche cycle but the crack did not propagate all the way to that side.