Aspen

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Feb 3, 2019 · Aspen

Weather

Strong southwest winds and warm temperatures (25F) throughout the trip. Most precipitation was falling as moist graupel with the exception of a brief period of intense snowfall. The graupel was dense and cohesive as it fell, with strong winds being effective at loading lee aspects.

Snowpack

The total snow depth at 11,400 feet on a southwest facing slope was generally about 1 meter. Only about 5 to 10 cm of new snow had fallen, mainly as graupel, and was a dense, cohesive layer. A 1cm layer of intact stellars was sandwiched between the graupel layer and the old snow surface crust. The 1 cm stellar layer produced easy propagating results, ECTP3. Hard propagating results were also observed at the depth hoar layer at 35 cm from the ground, ECTP24