Aspen
SnowpackColin Mitchell · Jan 7, 2015 · Aspen
Weather
Clear, calm and warm.
Snowpack
Average height of snow in the study plot was a little over 1 meter. The snow surface was moist down about 4 cm on all aspects, and a crust was forming on all but N aspects. The snowpack is continuing to round and strengthen. We now have about 70 cm of rounds over the December 13th interface. This slab varies from 4F at the top, to pencil hard for the bottom 25 cm. The layer of facets at the Dec 13th interface is rounding, but still soft, only 4F. Below this are 1F facets rounding, and at the base, 15 cm of 4F depth hoar rounding. I performed to ECT's. The first failed on the basal facets ECTP 21 SC, and the second was an ECTN 23 SC on the midpack facets. The large hardslab that now exists here and continued propagating test results on the basal depth hoar are concerning, but overall, the snowpack here is slowly gaining strength and that trend looks to continue this week. At elevations below 9,000 feet, widespread wet loose avalanches were observed along the road on McClure Pass and in the Crystal valley. These were mostly confined to surface layers, but some went full depth. All were small D1's. Several made it right to the edge of the road, but none crossed the white line.