Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Jan 29, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Cool morning quickly warmed up to above freezing temperatures along valley floors. A cold southerly breeze lasted most of the day with a very light flurry around 15:00 as we were exiting back to the trailhead.
Snowpack
The snowpack is mostly weak and faceted throughout at all elevations. The few slopes that had a slab over weak layer composition were wind-loaded slopes with mostly thin slabs only about 5 to 15cm thick and some east-facing slopes around 11,000 feet that still had a cohesive, 4F to 1F hard (on the hand hardness scale) slab composed of mixed forms (rounded grains and facets) showing clear signs of faceting. On a wind-loaded northeast-facing slope around 11,000 feet, we got some shooting cracks to propagate around 50 feet across the slope. Snowpack tests throughout the day all showed no failures or non-propagating failures until the east-facing slope just under 11,000 feet where we could get repeated propagating failures in extended column tests. Although the slab communicated the failure across the column the slab still fractured also indicating the slab where it does exist is quickly losing strength and becoming less concerning for long remote triggers and widely propagating avalanches. On open slopes near and above the treeline there is a very thing (<1cm) wind skin with very well-developed facets right underneath the wind skin showing chains of cupped facets with large striations, basically depth hoar on the snow surface. Southeast slopes near and above treeline had a thinner snowpack generally less than a meter with a breakable 3 to 6cm thick, P hard (on the hand hardness scale) crust about 10 to 15cm below the snow surface that was not supportable to feet, somewhat supportable to skis, and had very large chains of facets beneath it. If you find a southeast-facing slope with a slab this crust will not insulate any backcountry travelers from impacting the weak layer beneath it.
Avalanche
Saw a few older avalanches from the wind events last week most likely. Triggered several long-running Loose Dry avalanches on east-northeast-facing slopes near and above treeline.