Aspen

Avalanche

john morrone · Jan 5, 2019 · Aspen

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Weather

sunny, warm bluebird morning, becoming obscured skies and flat light into afternoon

Snowpack

large surface hoar and soft storm/faceted snow over supportive mid pack in marble bowl. some unsupported fully faceted areas BTL. old snow stake (missing measuring stick had 75 cm HS. upper raspberry had surface hoar and facted storm snow over a finger to pencil hard mid pack, with 25-30 cm basal facets. HS 150 @10,570. some firming up of storm snow to very soft slab, with non-propagating fractures when paralleling ski tracks in uptrack. Q1 surface on this 20 cm deep surface facet (buried surf hoar?) layer.

Avalanche

several dry-loose in recent steep ski tracks incl a snowboarder triggered with "victim" standing and staring n small (R1-D1) debris field (photo) at/below summit headwall. sizable old debris filed in steepest upper N E part of marble bowl. Not able to trigger any sluffs or propagating fractures in cuts on convex rolls in controlled terrain in raspberry.