Aspen

Avalanche

Zach Guy and Evan Ross · Apr 22, 2025 · Gunnison

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Weather

Moderate ridgetop winds were swirling some snow around with minimal loading. Clouds increased from clear to scattered. cloud cover: scattered; wind loading: none; snow avail for transport: small smounts

Snowpack

About 6" to 8" of settled dry snow above treeline on northerlies. Wind-protected east aspects above treeline had about 5" of recent snow that was getting wet by midday.     The snowpack had a thick refreeze (50 cm) below treeline, and became trapdoor and unsupportive near the valley floor this afternoon. . Skinning across isolated wind drifts produced minor cracking up to 5' long in hard wind slabs a few inches thick. A skier triggered sluff pulled out a very small wind slab.

Avalanche

A few more small wet loose avalanches ran today at higher elevations, with activity expanding to northeasterly aspects near treeline. A couple of small, thin natural wind slabs likely ran yesterday.