Aspen

Snowpack

Brian McCall · Mar 23, 2011 · Aspen

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Weather

Scattered clouds. Strong incoming radiation.Temps warming to near freezing at treeline by 2pm.Calm to light west winds.

Snowpack

Recent storm snow totals in this area ranged from 20-35 cm near treeline. Rapid settlement of the new snow on southerly aspects with warm temps today. Became moist below about 11,000 ft on SE-S-SW-W aspects. Dust layer present below new snow, about 1cm thick sitting on top of old melt freeze crust (see image). Recent storm snow well bonded to the upper interface of that crust. Compression tests showed moderate to hard Q2 results that failed below that dust/crust layer on some small mixed forms. The most significant effects of stronger west winds on Tuesday were found only above 11,800 ft. We found cross loaded slabs above treeline on southerly aspects 10-18 inches thick. Cracking and some small soft slabs resulted from ski cuts on small loaded test slopes.