Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Dec 28, 2018 · Aspen
Weather
Cold and almost entirely calm except for a brief window of a few minutes where light wind out of the south picked up. Mostly cloudy with a periodic low cloud deck. Brief periods of sun broke through here and there.
Snowpack
Snowpack here is generally weaker than further west towards Anthracite Creek and Yule Pass, but stronger than that of the upper Roaring Fork Valley. Average snowpack depth ranged from 75cm right near the ridgeline to a more widespread 120cm just below the ridge. About 30 cm of storm snow from a few days ago, and then stiffer storm snow from last week. A buried layer of 1mm near surface facets is clearly visible as a grey stripe about 60cm deep. This layer is reactive in snowpack tests as well to skier pressure on steep roller overs. The mid-pack is a 30-50cm thick 1F hard slab. The bottom 40cm of the snowpack is 2-3mm depth hoar.We did not get results on the depth hoar layer, but avalanches breaking here are a distinct possibility, either as step down avalanche from upper weak layer interface, or triggered from shallower spots in the terrain.
Avalanche
A ski turn on the convex roll of steep, but small terrain feature releases a 2 ft thick slab breaking around 10 ft wide and running about 20 vertical feet.