Aspen

Snowpack

Sean Smollen Jared Berman · Jan 1, 2021 · Aspen

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Weather

Warm day, mostly sunny day. Sky went from clear to broken. Winds were calm, no blowing snow observed at any elevation band. Air temp was -1 degrees celsius in the shade at 9700' (11:30am).

Snowpack

Relatively thin snowpack everywhere we travelled compared to nearby Yule Creek. Whumphing observed on low elevation, shady Southerly aspects. Also, 4mm+ Surface Hoar everywhere protected from wind and sun. In the pit, decomposing fragments beginning to facet were wedged between melt freeze crusts. The uppermost melt freeze crust was acting as the slab in tests and failed while excavating on small facets directly beneath it in a CT and an ECT. Continued hits on the CT produced a failure directly beneath lower crust on larger facets. Near surface faceting was occurring on top of upper crust and may be a future problem with our next snowfall.