Aspen

Avalanche

Polly Layton · Dec 29, 2020 · Aspen

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Weather

Cold day with moderate north wind in Castle Valley. Calm up Express Creek, below treeline. Partly sunny upon arrival. The ceiling dropped to about 1000ft by midafternoon. Snow flurries on and off to S1 at times.

Snowpack

HS 60-80cm. New snow is low density and there was no tension in it most places below treeline. On one west aspect cracking occurred. On south and west aspects some weak crusts sit below the recent storm snow and produced ECTPV results in the facets near the ground with the block quickly sliding off the column every time. North did not have a slab in the area tested.

Avalanche

I could see the debris from the Five Fingers avalanche, but couldn't make out a crown line. There were several very small point releases in the HST in steep, cliff terrain, all aspects, below treeline. There was one small point release off of a northeast aspect on Greg Mace Peak within the storm snow and another off of Zeahly Peak that triggered a small slab that stepped down to the ground on a steep convex break-over near treeline. Little Italian Bowl was obscured.