Aspen

Snowpack

Matt Huber · Jan 15, 2019 · Aspen

Weather

Cloud cover increased throughout the trip with 100% coverage by the time we finished. Temperatures hovered in the mid twenties and winds were calm near and below treeline. The clouds were obviously being blown by strong upper level southwest winds.

Snowpack

Below treeline, almost no supportive structure remains in the snowpack on shady aspects. It is completely faceted and is easy to initiate sluffing on very steep slopes. A test pit was dug at 11,300 on a straight North facing slope. Total depth was 95 centimeters. The bottom 45 centimeters were large 4-6mm Depth Hoar crystals that once the observation wall was excavated, poured out of the pit wall. Moderate compression test result were produced at the top of the depth hoar CTM 15 Q3. Above this were three layers that were all four finger hardness, barely distinguishable except for the size of facets in each layer. The January 6 storm is still evident and produced a moderate extended column test result that did not propagate ECTN12 at the bottom of the layer.Several inches of recent snow is on top of the January 6 layer. At all elevations 2-4mm surface hoar is intact at the current surface