Aspen

Snowpack

Jason Konigsberg, Dylan Craaybeek · Mar 11, 2022 · Aspen

Weather

The day started off cold and clear and then clouds built around the peaks with obscured skies at times. Winds were drifting snow onto southerly slopes at the highest elevations. Not much drifting lower down.

Snowpack

We mostly looked at northerly-facing near treeline slopes to determine the depth of the weak layer (facets buried in mid-Feb), the hardness, and the reactivity. We found varying information. We walked above some steep terrain features and sometimes got collapses. None of these collapses resulted in avalanches. Some of the collapses resulted in widespread shooting cracks. We found the snow height to vary from about 120 cm to 170 cm. The weak layers buried 70 to 90 cm deep was generally four-finger hard. Crack would propagate through this layer in extended column test in most test. The amount of hits it took to get propagation was generally between 18 and 25, though we did have on test that went ECTP6.---We also traveled on southerly slopes and found no signs of instability. There is about 10 to 12 inches of recent snow on top of a very hard crust. It is notable that the snow on southerly slopes stayed dry throughout the day. Even on our east-facing below treeline exit, the snow was still dry. This dry snow on generally sunny slopes set us up well for a Loose Wet avalanche cycle on Saturday with clear skies and light winds. We will likely see wet avalanche at all elevations on steep and rocky southerly slopes, unless the wind is enough to keep surfaces cool up high.