Aspen
AvalancheBrandon Levy, Jewel Campbell · Apr 2, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Cool especially for early April with scattered cloud cover and increasing westerly winds.
Snowpack
The snow depth on west-facing slopes near treeline was about 150cms. The depth hoar at the base of the snowpack is rounding and there are three significant crusts present: the lowest crust marks the early February warm-up while the the middle crust marks early March and the upper most crust complex was the late March meltdown. We speculated that under the current unseasonably cold temperatures the upper most crust may begin to degrade and faceted grains may form.
Avalanche
One notable older wet slab avalanche from the late March meltdown likely originated in the upper start zone of the West Roaring Fork Avalanche Area and ran over the bench and to the closed SH82. Based on that probable scenario and the debris pile on the road it was probably a D2.5 and I have coded it in the Highway Survey for CDOT purposes. More recent natural avalanche activity was confined to small loose dry or small wind slab avalanches.