Aspen

Avalanche

Scott Toepfer Blase Reardon · Mar 24, 2016 · Aspen

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Weather

Clouds gradually increased throughout the day. Temperatures near ridglines stayed cool but down lower at 3 PM, in Hayes Creek, temperatures were warm enough to see some heating of the new snow. Some 'almost' wet snow at the new snow-MF crust interface. Once it got overcast it cooled down again and the little bit of melting stopped.

Snowpack

New snow (4-7") was well bonded to an old 1" thick melt freeze crust. Quick shear tests found a failure mid-layer in the storm snow, but suspect this will have vanished by Friday's sunrise. We triggered a very small D1 soft Storm Slab on a north aspect, and saw two fresh LDNR1/D0.5 avalanches on N aspect BTL

Avalanche

Possible to trigger small Storm Slab avalanches on steep North aspects