Aspen

Avalanche

Shane Edmonds · Dec 25, 2017 · Aspen

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Weather

Okay visibility with low clouds off in the distance, and some light snow. Skin track was covered in most areas, and gone in some from wind after 2 hours.

Snowpack

East aspect, height of snow is 55 cm at 11,000'. 55 cm-25 cm fist hardness, 25 cm-15 cm 4 finger hardness, 15 cm to ground ice hardness. Interesting layer at 35 cm about 2-3 cm thick. With the naked eye this layer looks like cotton, when viewed with magnifying glass snow flake like characteristic with fingers/tentacles.

Avalanche

Road cut didn't slide on the way up, but on the way down was a couple feet closer to the bank with the snowmobile. Didn't notice anything had happened until further down road when I noticed big shooting cracks above and next to the road. Looked behind me and saw the debris, 1/4 of snowmobile track covered.