Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Mar 3, 2020 · Gunnison
Weather
Warm and sunny without a cloud in the cloud. Moderate north northwest winds confined to exposed ridgetops and peaks, otherwise calm.
Snowpack
50 to 60cm of recent storm snow is rapidly settling. Density changes in the middle of the storm snow produced small avalanches and easy shears yesterday, but this density change in no longer evident with the warm temperatures and strong sun affecting the snow. Storm snow is generally now a 4F hard slab that was getting moist this afternoon on all but due north shaded slopes at higher elevations. The storm snow would easily shear off the old snow surface regardless of aspect though the underlying interface varies by aspect with stout crusts on southerly slopes, and firm wind drifted layers or buried facets on northerly slopes. We could trigger small (D1) SSa breaking at the old snow interface and 6 to 8 feet across. We could also get the storm snow to sluff in long running Loose Wet avalanches that would entrain an lot of snow on the way down and produce impressive debris piles. This was the most dangerous type of avalanche today, as a shed cycle is in progress.
Avalanche
One small Storm Slab avalanche reported yesterday. There was an additional one that was likely triggered this morning. The bigger avalanches were long running Loose Wet avalanches that entrained the 50+cm of storm snow and grew to D2 in size. Numerous D1 wet avalanches.