Aspen

Snowpack

Brian Lazar · Feb 22, 2020 · Aspen

Weather

Warm! Felt like mid to late March. Mostly sunny to start the day and then clouds slowly built as the day went on with mostly cloudy skies by late afternoon. Light southwest winds as we got near treeline otherwise calm.

Snowpack

Snowpack was surprisingly thin here with average snowpack depth around 140cm. Winds built stiff hollow-sounding slabs in exposed areas near treeline. There is a thin windboard a couple inches thick over, softer snow, then a firm mid-pack slab over weak basal facets. We got a few mid-size collapses on steep northerly terrain. Nothing rumbling but still spooky. I did not want to test any steep open slopes as we approached near treeline elevations. Snow remained soft on northerly slopes in below treeline sheltered areas and mostly weak from top to bottom. Sunny slopes had firms crusts in the morning, which became moist and sticky by the afternoon. These will freeze again into solid crusts before the new snow starts to accumulated.