Aspen

Avalanche

Brandon Levy, Polly Layton · Nov 10, 2020 · Aspen

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Weather

Cold with winds from the West Northwest.

Snowpack

The snowpack on Northeast and North facing slopes in the alpine has a similar structure with old snow from October at the base of the snowpack. The snow is generally deeper on the Northeast slopes (65 cms vs. 35cms on North facing slopes where we traveled). The old snow appears to have been a temperature crust which is now faceting and has a thin layer of larger grained facets on the top end. This old, faceted snow ranges from 8-20cms thick and is the layer of concern producing easy propagating results in large column tests (ECTP down 48 on 1-3mm FC on a NE slope at 12200') and easy CTE(4,6)down 28 on the same 1-3mm FC on a North Facing slope at the same elevation. Localized collapses were also observed as well as continued light wind loading from west northwest winds.

Avalanche

We saw 6 small (R1D1) natural slab avalanches in Mt Boy, 4th of July Bowl, and Independence Mountain.