Aspen
AvalancheColin Mitchell · Jan 18, 2016 · Aspen
Weather
Mostly cloudy skies and seasonal temperatures. Westerly winds were variable and gusty below treeline. The nearby higher peaks, Treasure Mt., Chair Mt., Raspberry Peak, etc. had small plumes coming off of the ridges and summits, indicative of stronger winds in the alpine and continued loading of easterly slopes.
Snowpack
The snowpack is becoming more homogenous in hardness and structure, with faceted layers sintering well. Basal weak layers are becoming difficult to affect with tests. This weekend’s snow has already bonded to the old snow surface, and is largely indistinguishable from the slab formed by the Christmas week storms. Old depth hoar near the ground is still a concern, but it would take a very big load to re-activate this layer. Snowpack tests were unremarkable, ECTX x2, and CT 22 and 26. Compression test one broke on a discontinuous and barely discernible mid-pack facet layer. The other one broke on the ground/snow interface, and had some mud on the bottom of the column. PST’s targeting the interface between the December snows and early season facets produced one SF result at 40/100, and one jagged break that broke down and across the thick, faceted basal layer, also at 40/100. Average height of snow is around 125 cm in and near Lone Tree Bowl, as well as in the weather plot at the top of the pass (8,757 ft). The sun popped out a couple of times in the morning and early afternoon, and left a very thin crust in low elevation, sun-exposed areas.
Avalanche
The only avalanche activity observed on my tour were D.5 sluffs along the pass, triggered by warming. These slides were only 3 or 4 inches deep, and did not reach the edge of the road.