Aspen
AvalancheNathan Baier · Dec 10, 2019 · Aspen
Weather
Passing clouds, mostly sunny. Light breezes and cool temps.
Snowpack
While skinning up south facing terrain we experience a collapse so we dug a hasty pit. Approximately 110 cm of snow at the pit, snow depth on south facing slope is generally a meter plus. We dug the pit at 11,100 ft. We found the bottom half of the snowpack to be consolidated snow, finger plus. Above that is a combination of three crust layers with storm snow between and capped with about a foot of recent snow. We believe the collapse we experienced was between the newest crust which was weak and the crust below it. When we isolated the column and did an ECT we did not find a planar surface or any energetic release. There is widespread surface hoar on all aspects and elevations. North facing/shaded terrain had the largest crystals. The surface hoar on south aspects already seemed to be breaking down.
Avalanche
Ant Peak - North face and “Shield”. The Shield appears to go wall to wall and pulled slopes lower on the NE aspects. The crown on the Shield looked deep, maybe a meter? North face also had some slides. Hard to tell how large or deep.