Aspen
SnowpackJewel Campbell · Mar 20, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Temps around freezing all day with a light northwest breeze. Skies were overcast and I could see snowfall further southeast in the Sawatch. Clouds lifted and started to clear by midafternoon.
Snowpack
North slopes near tree line had an overall depth of 155cm with 25cm of new snow on an old crust that had turned into loose facets. There was another crust turned into facets about 38cm down from the surface and this layer was sensitive in snowpack tests. A third melt-freeze crust was sitting at the interface of the basal layer 67cm down. This crust was pencil-hard, and intact. The rest of the snow under that was fist-hard facets and depth hoar. A propagation saw test under this crust produced results (PSTEnd 32/100). The whole snowpack was dry with no signs of rounding. When shoveling snow the upper slabs were quite distinct and shearing cleanly at the interfaces. East slopes near tree line had a similar depth and structure with the exception that the crusts which had faceted out on norths were still frozen melt forms forming knife-hard crusts. Snow totals below tree line were under a meter with prevalent crusts beneath the new snow and a moist surface by midafternoon on east aspects.