Aspen
SnowpackToepfer/ McCall · Mar 8, 2011 · Aspen
Weather
Overcast morning. Skies obscured after noon. Winds light to moderate out of the northwest. Period of light snow starting around 1pm.
Snowpack
Quick accumulation overnight of around 35 cm of new snow at treeline elevations. Storm totals last couple days around 50cm. Mid storm change in precip particle type caused some instability and a few small naturals to run within that storm snow layer some time during the overnight hours. Snowpack concerns in this area are mostly new snow and wind slabs in upper snowpack. Stronger mid and lower snowpack made up of mostly rounded grains. Two January surface hoar layers still found in snowpack at around 1.6 meters below the surface. Grains were starting to round and did not fail on tests today. Light drifting snow observed due to some slowly increasing northwest winds today. Evidence of significant cross loading from strong southerly winds last Sunday.