Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 9, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Beautiful day with cooler temperatures in the high teens to low 20s throughout the day. Sunny skies with clouds visible to the northeast mostly and Calm winds with Light gusts at ridgetop above 11,000 ft. Light snow transport visible on high elevation peaks but very little along most ridgelines.
Snowpack
On the valley floor below 9,000 feet the height of snow (HS) varies between 40-60cm deep on average. Above 9,000 feet the snowpack begins to take shape with an HS varying between 1-2 meters on north, northeast, and east facing slopes. Here, 20-40cm of weak (F to 4F hard) facets and depth hoar snow constitute the base of the snowpack with a 1-1.5 meter firm (P to 1F hard) slab of rounding facets and rounded grains resting on top and about 20-30cm of soft (F hard) decomposing fragmented grains and precipitation particles resting on the surface. Great low-angle skiing conditions today! West and northwest-facing slopes near treeline still hold new snow from yesterday. Calm winds prevented much of the last storm to stay where it fell and little snow has been transported in the past 24 hours. Snowpack tests continue to indicate these northerly and easterly slopes are the most dangerous and where you are most likely to trigger an avalanche.
Avalanche
Saw a few old avalanches including what looks like a Large avalanche off the north face of Garrett peak but did not code that one as I could not tell for certain that it was an old avalanche. Other avalanches coded in separate observations to improve location data for our Avalanche Explorer tool. Links to those avalanches below - Large slab avalanche south of Haystack: https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=68834 Large slab avalanche on east face of Daly: https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=68837