Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 24, 2023 · Aspen
Weather
11F with Few clouds in Carbondale at 7:00 in the morning warming up to 21F at Ruedi Reservoir by 16:30. Cloud coverage increased to OVC by 10:00 and light snow (S-1) began at 11:30 on Mount Thomas increasing to S1 by 12:00.
Snowpack
The snowpack in this area is quite deceiving. No signs of instability, very few recent avalanches, no cracks or shooting collapses, and great looking snow until you dig to the ground and find what the snow is resting on. The average height of snow (HS) on southerly-facing slopes below and near the treeline ranged from around 50-120cm deep increasing with elevation. All slopes except for south and southwest below the treeline had 4F to F hard (on the hand hardness scale) well-developed depth hoar making up the bottom 10-40cm of the snowpack. The overlying slab is mostly 1F to P hard with three prominent melt-freeze crusts (MFcr) on sunny slopes. None of the MFcr showed any sign of instability during snowpack tests and no evidence of MFcr/Facet combinations. On northerly and easterly slopes near and above the treeline there is a uniform 80-100cm 1F to P hard slab with 20-40cm of 4F to F soft, new snow making up the top of the slab. Long column snowpack tests all show signs of clear instability with extended column tests getting propagating failures between 10-20 taps and propagation saw tests failing around 20-30/100cm. Southerly slopes below the treeline were developing a fourth MFcr on the old snow surface that is now buried with 2-4cm of very low-density new snow (40-60kg/m^3) that fell today. New snow was composed primarily of 2-4mm stellar dendrites with a noticeable amount of 1mm plates. Northerly and easterly aspects near and above the treeline on wind-loaded terrain features are the primary slopes of concern as you are most likely to trigger them from the shallow points at the bottom of the slope.
Avalanche
Two notable avalanches observed on wind-loaded terrain features near and above the treeline.