Aspen

Avalanche

blase reardon Brian Lazar · Mar 28, 2017 · Aspen

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Weather

AM snowline 7500-8000 feet. Melted off by PM. Winds light and northerly. Foggy above ~12000 ft; felt much warmer than it was. ABout 5" of new snow above 12000 ft that quickly became moist and settled with radiation/ greenhousing. Some light (S-1) snow, and one burst of S1 and graupel. Rain showers in valley mid afternoon.

Snowpack

Isolated spots with the potential for small, shallow avalanches - Storm Slab, Wind Slab or Loose Wet, depending on location. 1-10" of new+recent snow on firm crusts. Upside down, with newest snow denser than faceted/ low-density snow above crust. Variable depths due to scouring and drifting. All drifts soft. One shooting crack < 2m long and ~4" deep.

Avalanche

Very poor visibility, so no view of surrounding slopes. Dropping/ pushing snow onto steep slopes resulted in some small, short-running point releases on 40* slopes. These stopped as soon as they hit lower-angled slopes.