Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Dec 4, 2024 · Aspen
Weather
Few clouds and warm temperatures with a light westerly breeze.
Snowpack
The snowpack on shady slopes basically consists of 10-20cm of very weak (F to F-) near-surface facets (FCsf) on top of a cohesive mid-pack slab(4F to 1F-) that rests on a weaker layer of well-rounded facets (4F- to 4F). Ski penetration is consistently 10-15cm deep with the mid-pack slab being supportable to my weight across the terrain. Sunny slopes are all developing thick melt-freeze crusts on the snow surface. Snowpack tests on northerly-facing slopes showed a mix of stubborn propagating failures and non-propagating failures on the weak layer just less than two feet below the snow surface. The only slopes that showed any signs of instability were thin (<5cm) Wind Slabs on easterly-facing slopes above the treeline and those would just crack a few feet from the tips of my skis.
Avalanche
Saw a few large natural avalanches from last week's natural avalanche cycle including a very large avalanche above Capitol Creek.