Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek, Morgan Boyles · Feb 19, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Warm temperatures all day getting above freezing by noon. Mostly light winds from the west and northwest with Moderate snow transport at ridgetop. Clear and sunny throughout the day.
Snowpack
The snowpack is fairly complicated right now. Southerly slopes have Wet or Very Wet surface snow on top of a melt-freeze crust (MFcr) below 10,000 feet. Above 10,000 feet the surface snow on southerly aspects is Moist to Dry with either a thick (3-5cm) supportable MFcr or a thin (1-2cm) breakable MFcr depending on aspect and slope angle. Northerly slopes have a layer 10-20cm thick of precipitation particles (PP) and decomposing fragmented particles (DF) developing a thin slab over a 30-50cm layer of well-developed near-surface facets (FCsf) that formed during the January/February dry spell. This slab is too thin and too weak to propagate a failure of the buried weak layer more than a ski's length away unless you find wind-loaded terrain. On wind loaded slopes near the treeline thin (5-10cm) slabs of wind-packed rounded grains (RGwp) overlay the buried FCsf. Shooting cracks and collapses were observed in these areas and the wind slab grew thicker the higher we traveled. Most northerly slopes that weren't wind-loaded had a noticeable Radiation Recrystallization crust just below the surface of the snow and some north-facing slopes even had a MFcr buried 15-20cm below the surface from warm temperatures prior to the last storm Feb. 16/17.
Avalanche
Several avalanches were observed, most of which looked a day or two old with a few loose avalanches on southerly slopes sliding naturally today. Skier-triggered* avalanche observation here: https://avalanche.state.co.us/caic/obs/obs_report.php?obs_id=69926