Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek, Brandon Levy · Apr 19, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
A cool, snowy morning slowly cleared throughout the day, with low-level clouds on and off, sometimes obscuring visibility to only a few feet in front of us. There was an almost eerie lack of wind, and it was very quiet near and above the treeline. Once we gained the the ridgeline, there was a strong cloud inversion in the Crystal Valley, where we could see all the peaks throughout the Elks and the Raggeds but nothing on the valley floors. Some light gusts started moving a small amount of snow shortly after noon.
Snowpack
There was no evidence of slabs anywhere we traveled and we tried to find wind-loaded slopes, even along the ridgeline above 11,000 feet. The new snow was settling quickly and was moist by 10:00 AM, but there was still about 8 to 10 inches of new snow on north-facing slopes. The new snow settled to about 3 to 6 inches on south-facing slopes. The new snow seems to be bonding well to the old crust, as the old crust was still moist and not entirely refrozen when the storm started. Any instabilities would have been within the storm snow, as we saw in some areas where the snow surface was getting wet and easily sliding off the dry, porous snow below, still above the crust. I suspect we will have a widespread small Loose Wet shed cycle tomorrow when the sun comes out for more than a few hours, but they will slide on the crust on not be more than 3 to 6 inches deep. I would be surprised to see any Loose Wet activity larger than a D1 on Sunday, except for in the steepest, sustained, south-facing terrain.
Avalanche
No avalanche activity beyond triggering a couple of very small cornice failures on north-facing slopes above 11,500 feet that broke about as wide as the ski it was kicked with. It was easy to get small, shallow loose avalanches going on slopes much steeper than 40 degrees but they wouldn't run far.