Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Mar 8, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Cold morning with temperatures in the negative single digits warming to around 15F by noon. Broken cloud coverage to begin the day clearing throughout the morning with Few cloud coverage and lots of sunshine by noon. One brief period of very light snowfall around 3:30 PM then sunny Few clouds and sunshine until sunset. Light winds with Moderate gusts above the treeline and light snow transport all day near and above the treeline.
Snowpack
Dangerous avalanche conditions existed on northerly-facing slopes today. Below 11,000 feet there were widespread large collapses in the snowpack large enough to shake large aspen trees and shooting cracks traveling several hundred feet. Several of the collapses occurred within dense forested areas and the failure propagated through the trees with shooting cracks still traveling over 20 feet. All of these collapses and slope-wide failures occurred on the buried facet layer that developed during the January-February dry spell below a 1F to 4F hard 50-70cm thick slab. Snowpack test results further confirmed the dangerous conditions on all northerly-facing terrain. Near the treeline the collapses grew less widespread as the slab grew thicker (70-100cm) and it was more difficult to affect the weak layer. Several slope-scale collapses were still triggered near the treeline on northeast-facing slopes and one on a southeast-facing slope that failed on facets below a thick melt-freeze crust when a boot penetrated through the crust. Above the treeline there were no more signs of instability such as shooting cracks or collapses until I remotely triggered a D3 avalanche on the descent (see avalanches section). On most other slopes the new snow seems to be bonding well to the old snow surface and southerly slopes seem to be fairly stable at all elevations aside from one large collapse near the treeline on a low-angle southeast-facing slope (15-25 degrees). This collapse was from a failure in facets below a crust that was only affected after taking of my skis and starting to dig a pit. Another melt-freeze crust developed on the snow surface below the treeline on southerly slopes throughout the day today.
Avalanche
I remotely triggered a very-large avalanche on a northwest-facing slope at around 11700 feet. Also observed several dozen old natural avalanches from the past two weeks that are coded separately.