Aspen

Snowpack

Brian Lazar · Dec 19, 2021 · Aspen

Weather

Cool, clear and calm.

Snowpack

Average snowpack depth is around 150cm, with some drifted areas quite a bit deeper than that. Recent storm snow has settled into a stiff now-midpack slab. The top 30cm is still soft (F hardness) from the last little bit of snow a couple days ago, and shows signs of near-surface faceting. Obvious layer of surface hoar is down ~80cm, and is preserved standing upright. Below that is a stiffer layer (4F) of facets, and then 50cm of F-hard, 2mm basal facets (not depth hoar). The surface hoar is scary to look at, but could not get results in ECTs. PSTs produced results of ~65/100. Both types of large column test did not produce the reactive results I was expecting given the nature of the weak layer. Did get PST results of 45/100 on the top of the basal facets. The snowpack is markedly less than reactive than just several days ago, however, the weak layers still are reason for concern. You can still trigger avalanches in thinner areas, which would break 3 feet deep, and have the potential to propagate widely. Things are trending in the right direction, but steep northerly-facing terrain still needs to be considered guilty until proven innocent.