Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Dec 11, 2021 · Aspen
Weather
Cold morning, 10F in Ashcroft at 10:30 AM partly cloudy and moderate to intense snow transport at the ridgeline. Warmed up to mid 20's F by 2:00 PM and remained sunny all day.
Snowpack
Dangerous conditions today. Everywhere I travelled there was over 40cm of new snow forming a Fist to 4 Finger hard slab on top of widespread surface hoar and buried near surface facets. Every step taken into fresh snow had either localized collapsing or shooting cracks 30 to 60 feet away from my skis.
Avalanche
Saw many avalanches small today as well as several large [D2] slab avalanches. Every avalanche I directly observed close up was near or below the treeline and failed on a layer of buried surface hoar. On east facing aspects that got more sun this buried surface hoar was on top of a spatially variable crust that acted as the bed surface in at least 2 of the avalanches I observed.