Aspen
SnowpackBrian Lazar · May 10, 2019 · Aspen
Weather
Overcast to obscured skies. Warm, with little to no wind. Around an inch of new snow overnight with storm totals around 6 inches.
Snowpack
Average snowpack depth is around 2m. Storm snow is around 6 inches of new snow. This has settled to 3 inches below treeline, and is still around 6 inches above 12,000 ft. Drifted gully features hold 8 to 10 inches of new snow. I could not find any areas with fresh wind-drifted slabs, as high as 13,700 ft. New snow rests on a semi-supportable melt-freeze crust that perseveres a moist 1F hard layer about 20 cm thick. Below that is a layer cake of eroding crusts and moist facets and depth hoar to the ground. The new snow has not yet shed off is a major way. I anticipate a cycle of small wet avalanches over the weekend once the sun comes out. The top 20 to 30cm is keeping the entire snowpack in place. If we don't get good freezes at night and lose this "cap" deeply gouging wet avalanche activity will be likely, possibly to ground.