Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 30, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Warm, sunny day with a light to moderate breeze from the east lightly moving some snow along ridgelines.
Snowpack
The December drought persistent weak layer (PWL) is still very prominent throughout this area composed of large, well-developed facets or buried surface hoar. It is not as concerning right now as the overlying slab, while still about 4F to 1F- hard (on the hand hardness scale) and supportable to skis, is composed of faceted grains and shows no propagation during long-column snowpack tests. The current snow surface is composed of well-developed facets as well and will be the main PWL of concern when snow returns. This PWL is currently only a concern on wind-loaded slopes where there is a thin, dense slab on top of it. The extent of the Loose Dry avalanche activity hints at how weak the entire snowpack is from top to bottom on any shady slope. All southerly, sunny slopes had a thick melt-freeze crust on the snow surface that could fully support my weight on skis.
Avalanche
Triggered one very small hard slab on a wind-loaded slope just below ridgeline and several Loose Dry avalanches on steep northeast-facing slopes including a D2 Loose Dry avalanche that grew large enough to break a couple of small trees.