Aspen
AvalancheMatt Huber · Mar 20, 2020 · Gunnison
Weather
Periods of very heavy snowfall in the morning, close to two inches per hour. Skies were obscured with very limited visibility, could not see ridgetops for blowing snow. On the way out, intermittent periods of sunshine broke through the cloud cover.
Snowpack
Observations were limited to protected, below treeline terrain. 60 centimeters of new snow rests on a 5 cm pencil hard melt-freeze crust. Below the crust the snowpack is moist to wet clustered melt forms. Extended column tests showed easy to moderate non-propagating results at a mid-storm density change 20-30 cm below snow surface, the new/old interface seemed was stubborn, but suspect it will be of concern as storm snow settles into slab density. Many natural loose dry avalanches initiating on the mid-storm layer and gouging the entire 60 cm of storm snow as it gained momentum.
Avalanche
Countless small loose dry avalanches, becoming wet as the day warmed and on sunnier slopes. A small storm slab looked to have run mid-morning below treeline on an east-facing slope and another above treeline was softened by fresh snow, suspect it ran yesterday or last night. With poor visibility, expect I was unable to see many others.