Aspen
AvalancheBen Pritchett · Oct 31, 2023 · Aspen
Weather
Cold, below-zero start to the day in the valley floor. Temperatures climbed quickly under clear skies as we climbed out of the temperature inversion.
Snowpack
We found the recent storm snow sits right-side-up on either a) dirt, b) a 10-20cm thick layer of facets near the ground on northerly-facing slopes. The storm snow on facets was generally too soft to propagate a crack more than a couple of feet away in wind-sheltered locations. We felt one minor collapse in a tiny northerly-facing terrain feature near treeline, but we did not elicit any cracking or collapsing stomping around in other similar features. Southwest winds during the early and mid part of the storm drifted some north to easterly-facing slopes that are capped with soft snow surfaces. Surface textures highlight more obvious drifting from the northwest winds as the storm exited.
Avalanche
A few small Wind Slab avalanches ran towards the end of the storm. We didn't get close enough to investigate the weak layer, but they looked like surface snow only, not related to old snow below.