Aspen
SnowpackJewel Campbell · Mar 6, 2024 · Aspen
Weather
Warm and sunny in the late morning, partly cloudy then mostly cloudy by early afternoon and light snow started (broken dendrites and graupel). Temps were in the low 40s for the morning but dropped by afternoon and winds were very light from the north.
Snowpack
I traveled from 8700' to 10700' and the snow was warm and wet in the lower elevations, even in the shade. The storm snow from this weekend was rapidly settling and supportable to skis, however my boot penetration was 80cm. At 10700 on a east-northeast aspect there was about 50cm of storm snow with a prominent dust layer from near the beginning of the storm (3/2). A very slight melt freeze crust with underlying facets from under the storm snow (40cm down) was not reactive in my ECT, however the buried surface hoar from early February (100cm down) was, and appeared to be significantly rounding and clustering. Overall the snowpack was rounding and getting warm, but had several hard slabs resting on the weak layers. The height of snow above 10500' was 115-130cm and the slope I dug on was fairly sheltered from the wind.