Aspen

Avalanche

Anonymous · Dec 16, 2016 · Aspen

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Weather

Heavy snow (1 inch/hr+) and windy up high, 8 inches of new snow at trailhead, 18" or so near 11,000 feet. Temperatures were right at freezing at 9,000 feet and in the lower to mid 20s at 10,700 feet.

Snowpack

No signs of instability on the way up, did not ski any of the upper lines for obvious reasons. Skiing back to the car on E/NE/N aspects the snowpack was extremely touchy. Very easy to trigger sluffs/small slides on any steep, open terrain, though only involving storm snow. Instability will obviously get worse as the storm continues.

Avalanche

Mostly sluffs, one decent sized remotely triggered, probably R2D1.5, but didn't get too close to look at dimensions. All involved only storm snow 8"-18" deep on N/NE aspects between 10,500 and 10,000 feet.