Aspen

Avalanche

Brian Lazar, Polly Layton · Jan 26, 2021 · Aspen

Weather

Cold and light snow all day. Around an inch or two of new snow by the time we exited the field around 3PM. Winds picked up a bit around noon as they shifted to the northwest.

Snowpack

Average snowpack depth is around 1m, but is highly variable. Below treeline is quite thin and weak snow throughout in sheltered areas. Open areas harbor anything from thin wind crust to windboard a couple inches thick. Ski pen was around 15cm, but snowmobiles and boot pen would penetrate into the basal facets. Conditions are more variable as you near treeline and the alpine. Stiff supportable slabs yields to trapdoor weak snow without warning. Snowpack consists of weak faceted layers and thin midpack "slabs" 1F in hardness but comprised of facets. The Jan 19 near surface facets are buried around 15 to 20cm deep in this area and are the most worrisome layer, though ECTs did not produce propagating results. I expect it would where new snow is deeper and a little stiffer.

Avalanche

None observed, but poor visibility most of the day