Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 6, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Overcast with on-and-off snow throughout the day. Around 2 inches of low-density snow accumulated throughout the day in Lost Trail Creek. Light northwest wind with occasional moderate gusts.
Snowpack
The slab is consistently 50 to 70cm thick here with an average height of snow (HS) around 130 to 160cm. Several collapses from individual terrain features to slope scale collapses on east and southeast slopes above 11,000 ft. The largest collapse I triggered today was on a southeast-facing slope off Sheep Mountain around 11,500 feet on a 25-degree slope that I thought triggered an avalanche lower down on the slope but I couldn't tell for sure and couldn't safely get close enough to where the slope steepens to find out. The new snow falling today and over the past couple of days is relatively low-density (around 65-80 kg/m^3) and still Fist hard (on the hand hardness scale). The rime ice layer is present up to 11,600 ft. and is the only distinct layer in the slab from the past couple weeks of new snow with large grains of graupel above and below it.
Avalanche
A human-triggered avalanche on the north side of Sheep that may have caught someone yesterday (coded and images in this ob: https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/90915f23-9304-41ac-bee0-3116367d11c2) and an older, large avalanche on the east-facing slopes of Arkansas Mountain above Silver Creek that could have been natural or remotely triggered by snowmobilers that were in the area around the same time based on how buried their tracks were and how buried the crown was.