Grand Mesa
AvalancheBrandon Levy · Nov 30, 2022 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Today there was another cold and clear morning on Grand Mesa with sustained southerly wind and about 9" of new snow from the storm on Monday night into Tuesday.
Snowpack
The new snow from Monday night and Tuesday (11/28 and 11/29) is still soft and unconcolidated in the sheltered terrain on Grand Mesa. The underlying persistent weak layer is just slightly softer and composed of chained faceted grains 4-6mm. In a sheltered location the snowpack is generally all soft and it will take more load to produce avalanches due to the slab properties. In wind-effected locations where the overlying new and recent snow is harder, I expect the weight of a skier, rider, or snowmobiler would trigger small avalanches.
Avalanche
One small section of the Aspen Bank cutbank path released as a very small soft slab avalanche that reached the road on 11/29. There was also one small slab avalanche amongst the rocks in Cliffs #2 that ran about 20'.