Aspen

Snowpack

Weak layers are now becoming more difficult to affect, as a dense (1F+), 60cm slab sits atop. This 'bridging' effect might create a false-positive feedback loop, as we are not seeing the obvious signs of instability. However, stability tests are still providing alarming results. The interface where the early season, faceted snow meets the slab of new snow (from about Jan 19th-present), is of concern. We now have a 1F+ hard slab sitting atop of a F(ist) hard foundation of essentially sugar snow. This makes me think that it might not be the first or second skier, maybe not even the third, but the fourth or fifth skier that triggers a very large avalanche. Keep playing the patience game!