Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar Brandon Levy · May 1, 2018 · Aspen
Weather
Morning started off cool (around 40F at 11,000 ft), and partly cloudy with light westerly winds. By noon, skies had turned overcast, westerly winds strengthened, temperatures dropped around 5 degrees, and some very light flurries began.
Snowpack
The snowpack on these south to southwest-facing slopes of Twining Peak was around 1m deep. Other than a knife-hard surface freeze around 20cm thick, the underlying snowpack was moist to wet throughout. Unlike other aspects, this surface freeze was supportable to a person on skis, but not in boots. As you stepped out of skis you would punch through to ground. Polycrsytalline grain clusters existed through the snowpack indicating melt-water infiltration to the ground. Basal facets showed obvious signs of rounding and sintering. The snowpack here does not seem to be draining yet, but rather is "holding" a lot of water, and feels "spongy" when digging and conducting snowpack tests. Once the surface freeze breaks down, wet avalanches gouging to the ground are possible on these slopes.
Avalanche
Observed a wet slab avalanche that likely ran between Friday April 27 and Sunday April 29, on a north northwest aspects near treeline.