Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Mar 18, 2024 · Aspen
Weather
Cold morning quickly warming up to above-freezing temperatures by 10:00 AM. Mostly calm with a light breeze and no noticeable wind transport at ridgelines.
Snowpack
Below about 10,000 feet all snow surfaces including shady slopes had a crust in the morning that softened up or fully melted by the afternoon. Southerly slopes below about 9000 feet were fully saturated with water to the ground. Snowpack tests on northerly slopes above treeline show the February 2 surface hoar layer is still present but does not fail during extended column tests, however, it still gets propagating failures after cutting about 20-40% of the column in propagation saw tests. The basal facet layer near the ground did show propagating failures during extended column tests. The buried surface hoar layer remains the persistent weak layer of the greatest concern but it is Specific in its spatial distribution and Stubborn in its sensitivity to triggers giving us a low-probability, high-consequence scenario with our current Persistent Slab avalanche problem.
Avalanche
Numerous new avalanches observed since last traveling in this area on March 1 (see March 1 observation: https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-report/51ae3636-0fc7-42bc-b317-1943e267b876 ). Several were clearly from the early March avalanche cycle as they were mostly filled back in while some of the avalanche likely occurred within the past week or even the past few days. At least three of the avalanches observed started at the ridgeline and made it to the valley floor thousands of feet below. Many of the avalanches are coded in separate observations for the Avalanche Explorer tool.