Aspen
Quick reportEvan Ross · Feb 1, 2026 · Aspen
Weather
Beautiful day. Warm temps and calm to light winds. cloud cover: clear; wind loading: previous; recent snowfall (cm): 0; snow avail for transport: small smounts
Snowpack
There was more wind-effected snow here today, then when I was last in the area on Wednesday. Some of my tracks from last Wednesday were now raised. The most sucpect hard slabs were located in areas I didn't feel comfortable assessing. One safe area, on top of a large drift going into a south-easterly facing slope at 11700ft, had multiple P hard, slabs stacked on top of each other. The primary layer of concern was about 90cm down, consisting of 1mm 4f+ facets. The old hard slabs were specific to E-SE-S facing slopes and were isolated to non-existent on other aspects. Norhterly facing, wind sheltered slopes didn't have a loose dry avalanche problem, and I didn't see any skier triggered sluffs over on Purple Palace. Southerly-facing slopes were forming crusts up to at least ~11,700ft. West-facing slopes were dry in Paradise Basin, and moist below 11,200ft on our way home. . On shooting crack on a NE-facing slope at 10,900ft. Interestingly, the faceted snowpack collapsed into the December droute layer, with a thin faceted 4-F mid pack. Traveled on more similar terrain with no results.