Sawatch
AvalancheBrandon Levy, Brian Lazar · May 13, 2021 · Aspen
Weather
Windy. Moderate to strong primarily northwest winds found snow to move mainly from north-facing slopes. Lenticular clouds formed to the east of Independence Pass. The winds kept the snow surface cold throughout the morning and soft dry snow was observed on south-facing slopes.
Snowpack
Recent snow from earlier in the week (5/10 to 5/11) was about 5cms thick and composed of the surface melt-freeze crust and about 2 cms of dry snow. This recent snow rested on top of the dust-crust which was 25cms thick and knife hard. Winds seemed to be picking up snow from primarily north-facing slopes with light deposition onto lee slopes. The soft, dry snow observed on south facing slopes was only about 15cms thick in the deepest spots and distribution was fairly random with softer areas adjacent to areas that had been blown clean to the dust-crust. This created variable skiing and riding conditions until we shifted to the west-facing terrain where there was a supportable melt-freeze crust of the most recent snow.
Avalanche
There were several small loose wet avalanches out of rocky terrain and below cornices on east, southeast, and south-facing slopes above SH82 and in the surrounding drainages including Geissler Mountain . One loose wet avalanche at Green Mountain West on a north-facing slope appeared to be skier-triggered. All of these avalanches are estimated to have occurred yesterday (5/12).