Aspen

Avalanche

Aspen Expeditions AIARE Level 1 · Jan 26, 2016 · Aspen

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Weather

quite cold ! wind was moderate out of the WNW with blowing snow in specific spots on the ridge. The loading did not appear to be very steady.

Snowpack

we dug just off the ridge in loaded snow on E aspect 12500 feet with a pit of aprox. 130 HS. We mainly focused on the top third of pack. We had ECTP M 35 cm down with 1 F + slab sitting on very clear 5 cm layer of near surface facets. Don't know if this was specific to loaded pockets on this aspect. we dug on N aspect lower down at 11800 and had a loaded little terrain feature with HS of 120. The snow was quite layered throughout but was homogonous hardness around 4 F plus throughout. kind of looked like a mixed formsish snowpack. There was a fairly distinct (weaker) thin layer 35 cm or so down that showed no reactivity on the ECT. we dug again at 11400 feet on E slightly SE on a little terrain feature that surprisingly had no crusts in it and was soft and mainly faceted throughout minus a little SS on the top 20cm. HS around 80 cm. We did not conduct tests and viewed this as primarily weak snow.

Avalanche

none observed. We watched one person drop right in the loaded E aspect from 12500 and basically cut across a whole section of start zone with no result.