Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Mar 24, 2024 · Aspen
Weather
Warm with broken sky and more sunshine than expected. Light southwest breeze along ridgetops with no noticeable snow transport throughout the day today.
Snowpack
Northerly slopes had a consistent height of snow (HS) of around 2 meters with around 10-20cm of new snow on top of 1-2mm FCsf. The new snow would easily slide off the old snow surface in shear tests and get propagating failures on isolation during extended column tests. The new snow came in warm and dense quickly developing into a slab even on less wind-loaded slopes below the treeline. On southerly slopes, the new snow bonded well to the old snow surface but as the cold front arrived around 14:30 it brought a significant amount of graupel which could act as a weak layer for new storm snow instabilities with another 6-12 inches of snow on top of that.
Avalanche
Easy to trigger small avalanches on wind-loaded slopes steeper than about 35 degrees. All of the avalanches were failing on a layer of near-surface facets about 10-20cm deep. All morning you could only trigger avalanches on wind-loaded slopes but by around 14:00 you could trigger small avalanches on steep slopes that were not wind-loaded as the new snow rapidly settled into a slab.