Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · May 12, 2023 · Aspen
Weather
Early morning rain below 10,800 feet. Sky was obscured when we started skiing around 8AM. Temperatures hovered near or above freezing at 11,000 ft with a light northwest wind. Skies began to clear a bit with brief windows of sunshine around 10:30AM before clouds looked to build again around noon.
Snowpack
The most surprising finding today was that the previously stout ~20cm dusty crust has completely broken down below about 11,200 ft. Ski pen at this elevation was typically around 20cm but occasionally would go to ground, especially in treed areas. You could easily push the basket end of ski pole to the ground and boot pen was to your crotch. The crust became sporadic around 11,500 ft with some trapdoors of unsupportable snow in areas. The crust did not become continuous and supportable until around 12,000 ft in elevation. New storm snow was moist to at least 12,800 ft and the underlying crust was wet. We experienced several collapses between 11500 feet and 12000 feet with the crust collapsing on wet snow underneath.
Avalanche
We observed two Loose Wet avalanches, one on north facing slope near treeline and another on a northeast facing slope above treeline. Both appear to have been triggered by small chunks of cornice breaking loose.