Aspen
AvalancheBritt Reugger · Dec 22, 2016 · Aspen
Weather
light to moderate SW winds. light wet snowfall with little accumulation and in and out weather pattern with some partial clearing at times. Above freezing temps down low but the cloud cover mitigated the intensity
Snowpack
We dug above the headwall pitch East aspect at 11500 feet or so. HS was 120 with boot pen of 30cm. Lots of strong snow through the pack. It guickly trended to 1F. There are basal facets but only in bottom 10cm. We had CT M Q1 60cm down underneath last Friday/ Saturday storm event. We had ECT X. After skiing the headwall pitch about 500 feet lower I pole probed in NE and noticed shallower snowpack with more distinct (or higher creeping) weakness at the base but we did not test. We had no whoomps or shooting cracks through the ski. there is some noticeable crust formation on SE slopes as we skied down to 10000 feet.
Avalanche
none observed other than previous large one on NE and NW aspects in last cycle. Tonar went sizeable. NW in maroon bowl went sizeable and arrested at green trees. It looks like the pointer or index area went on the south side of the thumb and put a lot of soft debris in the runout