Aspen
AvalancheGreg Shaffran · Mar 6, 2019 · Aspen
Weather
Temps were just below freezing at 11,000'. Winds were generally calm, with some light to moderate gusts out of the East. Moderate to heavy snowfall that left us soaking wet after only a few hrs in the field.
Snowpack
Average snow depth at near TL elevations on the east side of Richmond Ridge is over 2m. It wasn't hard to find 220cm+ in sheltered areas. The new snow is approx. 2-3 feet that starts at Fist hardness, and become 1F just above a 1cm pencil hard sun crust from last week. We conducted several compression tests near the site of today's witnessed natural avalanche, but could not reproduce the instability (ECTX and no CT results at the same interface as the bed surface of the avalanche).
Avalanche
We were there to photograph and document the large natural avalanche in McFarlane's Bowl from earlier in the week when we witnessed another natural avalanche. Today's witnessed natural occurred on an East facing slope that extended the existing crown to the South by approx. 100' (HS-N-R1-D1.5).