Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Feb 18, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Broken sky clearing throughout the day with Few cloud coverage by 2:00PM.
Snowpack
The snowpack is teetering on the edge of a natural avalanche cycle with human-triggered avalanches somewhere between Possible and Likely depending on aspect, elevation, wind-loading, and time of day. Currently you can trigger avalanches that will fail on the buried surface hoar on northeast aspects near and below the treeline where incoming shortwave radiation and warm daytime temperature sped up the process of settlement. A few shooting cracks and collapsing were observed on NE aspects with about 20cm of snow with a density of 120 kg/m^3. Other northerly aspects near and below the treeline had a between 15-25cm of new snow resting on 30-50cm of F-, FCsf with a density of 90 kg/m^3. No signs of instability on these slopes where the new snow is still low density and F hard. Above the treeline there are dense wind-loaded slopes on most easterly aspects that will be easy to trigger with any additional loading.
Avalanche
4 natural avalanches that likely occurred in the past 48 hours were observed above the treeline on easterly aspects, with 1 on a northwest aspect. 3rd avalanche ob found here: https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=69885 4th avy ob here: https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=69884