Aspen

Snowpack

Anonymous · Mar 23, 2016 · Aspen

Weather

In the morning around ~9 am it was very low visibility around 40 feet at best down to ping pong ball. Steady breeze all day at about 10-15 mph with 25 mph to 30 mph gusts above 10,000 feet first from the S and as the day progressed, switched to the N or NE. It was steady enough that we skied the bowl three times and had to put in a new track each time above study plot.

Snowpack

Hard to estimate with all the wind, but about 17 cm down low and above up to 25- 30 cm. Drifts on the summit formed up a meter, but snow we skied was over boot and surprisingly light and still fluffy/ right side up. We saw lots of shooting cracks on the soft/wind slabs of the new snow and we set off a very small, isolated sluff sympathetically on the ridge just below the summit. My partner also stepped down through a sun crust layer in the same area and we found faceted snow beneath.