Aspen

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Jan 21, 2020 · Aspen

Weather

Warm temperatures and completely overcast skies. Light snow began falling about 1030 with 1-2 inches accumulating on the skin track by the end of the trip. At 9000 feet, precipitation was a mix of snow and freezing drizzle.

Snowpack

The upper snowpack was warm, moist and globbed to the bottom of ski's and skins,(especially below 10,000 feet). On a southeast facing slope near 11,000 feet, the total snowpack depth was about a meter deep. The crust facet combination at the January 9 interface sits at about 65-70 centimeters from the ground and is visible to the eye, producing easy to moderate non-propagating results in Extended Column Tests. The faceting process has chewed through other crust facet combinations deeper in the snowpack, still visible but unreactive and no palpable hardness changes.