Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Dec 3, 2024 · Grand Mesa
Weather
Clear, cold morning warming up to near or above-freezing temperatures by noon. Light westerly breeze along the ridgeline near the top of Williams Peak. No snow transport.
Snowpack
The snowpack is supportable to skis on most aspects with a mid-pack 1F to 4F hard slab (on the hand hardness scale) but not supportable to boots. Foot penetration was to the ground on all slopes. Snowpack tests showed almost all non-propagating failures on a layer of well-rounded and well-bonded facets below last week's storm snow with a few propagating failures in extended column tests on a steep west-facing slope with rocks present and on a convex rollover nearing 40 degrees. This steep, shrubby and rocky west-facing slope was the only slope where I experienced small shooting cracks never traveling more than small terrain features less than 10 feet from where I triggered it. Despite stomping all over several small but steep test slopes facing northerly directions I still saw no signs of instability except for very small, localized cracks on the previously mentioned slope. There is notable surface hoar growth everywhere in this area. On sunny slopes, the surface hoar is likely melting every day and regrowing at night as the size is much smaller but in protected shady slopes some surface hoar crystals are growing larger than two to three centimeters across entire meadows.
Avalanche
Observed a few old avalanches from last week's natural avalanche cycle on November 27, 2024.