Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 9, 2023 · Aspen
Weather
Beautiful morning with with Few clouds and a Light breeze both wind and cloud coverage increasing throughout the morning.
Snowpack
The snowpack below treeline is around 100-150cm deep on northerly aspects and 50-100cm deep on southerly aspects, with easterly aspects being the deeper end and westerly aspects being the shallow end of those ranges. Southwest slopes below the treeline had several melt-freeze crusts (MFcr) but no persistent weak layers and no sign of facet-crust-combinations. South-facing slopes were similar to southwest with weaker crusts and both aspects produced non-propagating failures on a well-developed MFcr buried 20-30cm below the snow surface. All other aspects had well-developed persistent weak layers at the base of the snowpack and showed propagating results on long-column snowpack tests. No cracks or collapses were observed except for one localized collapse on a steep northwest-facing slope that did not produce any cracks.
Avalanche
One Large slab avalanche observed up Willow Creek.