Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Feb 8, 2020 · Aspen
Weather
Mostly sunny and warm. Relatively calm down low and very blustery at ridge top with westerly winds blowing 20-30mph with gusts in the 50s.
Snowpack
Snowpack took a beating from the last ferocious storm. The 48+ hours of very strong winds wreaked havoc in the alpine. Some windward slopes stripped bare, lee slopes loaded pretty fat with fresh slabs with more pronounced loading down toward near treeline and even below treeline. Lots of cross-loaded features stiff wind-drifted slabs, sastrugi. A lot of blowing snow today, but most of it did not seem to load slopes and just sublimated away.
Avalanche
Surprisingly limited natural avalanche activity from last storm. There were a few natural Wind Slab avalanches that broke around 2 feet deep and ran a long way on previous snow surface. Two in the same area of the Fingers of Hoghlands ridge towards Conundrum Creek, and one in Maroon Bowl.