Aspen

Snowpack

Brian Lazar · Mar 19, 2011 · Aspen

Weather

warm, but surprisingly windy/gusty. Increasing cloud cover through first part of day approaching overcast skies. This keep solar radiation influences from becoming too intense. Temps were warm but lack of sun kept it cooler than expecetd

Snowpack

Deep snowpack around Marble with upwards of 3m on the ground in some locations. Recent warm temps have helped to make the deeper buried weak layers less reactive, with the exception of slopes facing almost due north or slightly NE or NW. Recent storm on Thr night dropped about a foot of new snow in the area. Mod to strong southwesterly winds have moved much of this snow, and loading continued today onto N through E slopes. This has built soft windslabs 2-3 ft thick on these aspects in many place near and ATL. These can still ste down to deeper weak layers where those layers are still reactive N-E aspects ATL Near and BTL, on all aspects but north, crusts exists with a fresh dusting on top, except in open areas and along ridge-lines that have been scoured. By noon today, small loose wet slides had begun on S through Se aspects..some running on older crusts and some breaking through to ground. These will get bigger and easier to trigger as day progresses and day warms. If things don't freeze overnight, expect a wet cycle BTL for Sun.