Aspen
SnowpackDylan Craaybeek · Nov 15, 2023 · Aspen
Weather
Scattered to Broken cloud coverage throughout the day. A cold morning below freezing quickly warming to above freezing temperatures at 10,000 ft. by around 10:00 AM. Light breeze on the valley floor but audible gusts up at higher elevations with no noticeable wind transport.
Snowpack
The current snowpack is about as weak as it gets. North-facing slopes below the treeline have a mostly homogenous snowpack 20-30cm deep composed entirely of well-developed facets showing striations, cups, chains, and signs that this will soon be full-blown depth hoar. There were also some impressive near-surface facets in the top 1-3 cm showing signs of rapid kinetic growth. Most slopes I traveled on below the treeline in Castle and Cooper Creek also show some evidence of surface hoar developing. I did not get near or above the treeline but overall snow coverage is more continuous than the Fryingpan Wilderness and most of the Sawatch.