Aspen

Avalanche

Morgan Boyles · Dec 16, 2020 · Aspen

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Weather

S-1 BKN throughout the day.

Snowpack

In the valley (9,000') there is 30cm of snow, up at the huts (11,400') HS is 90-120 cm. Ski penetration was 50cm and boot pen was full. The structure of the snowpack is impressively weak. The lower half of the pack is 2-3mm facets of F to 4F hardness, the new snow is F- to F. Stability is very poor. It was easy to trigger an R1-D1.5, cracking and collapsing was experienced off the skin track, and several small naturals were observed. Interestingly ECT X (3x) was found. There is not yet enough snow for paths to run full track to the road. I have attached some terrain photos from 12/10 and 12/16 of the E facing slopes of the Malamute Ridge/Sheep (crusher path pictured).

Avalanche

I was able to easily trigger a SS-ASc-R1-D1.5-O on a 35-40 deg West facing slope at 11,400' by stepping off the edge of the road cut. I also remote triggered a large collapse over 100' away when I put my shovel into the crown to look at the profile! Three small R1 D1-1.5 naturals were observed on above treeline Eastern slopes on Leahey and Malamute on the walk in.