Aspen
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Mar 29, 2017 · Aspen
Weather
Partly cloudy skies with continued clearing through the day. Warm in the sun, but breezy enough to keep things cool in the shade and in wind-exposed areas.
Snowpack
Loose snow activity from yesterday was evident on a variety of slopes,and all elevation bands, but today the snow was surprisingly cold above about 9,500'. No signs of instability noted. Yesterday's wet snow formed a 1f hard slab over softer snow preserved from the past weekend, sitting on a stiff crust. The weak layer was 4f moist rounds today, but was probably either near-surface facets or preserved stellars yesterday morning. This is the likely failure layer in yesterday's skier-triggered storm slab avalanche. Lower elevations were wetting quickly in the afternoon sun. Below 9,500' surface layers were unstable by 1:30 and small loose wet slides were easily triggered on ski cuts. These avalanches were entraining a fair bit of snow and would have run far and been difficult to escape in steep terrain.
Avalanche
Many D1-1.5 loose wet slides were observed from yesterday. Small, loose wet slides were easily triggered in below treeline terrain in the afternoon.