Aspen
AvalancheBrian Lazar · Feb 24, 2022 · Aspen
Weather
Cold and socked in with light snow all afternoon. Occasionally you could make out the sun filtering through the clouds. Moderate west northwest winds stayed steady throughout the day.
Snowpack
Four to five feet of storm snow fell in this area since the start of the storm late on February 21. The old snow-new snow interface is marked by a dust layer at the bottom of the storm snow. The storm snow has now settled into a 3 to 4 foot thick slab that sits right side up. The top 30cm are F hard cold snow, then a marked density change and the middle of the storm slab is around 50cm of 4F hard snow which transitions to 1F hard for bottom 30-50cm of the slab. The storm slab is resting on either a thick layer of very weak near-surface facets on northerly-facing terrain or crust-facet combinations on east to southerly slopes.
Avalanche
Widespread avalanche cycle in the area in the last 48 hours with dozens of new avalanches. All appeared to break at the bottom of the storm snow. Most notable slides include a very large portion of Marble Bowl (locally referred to as Shooks) that broke 3 to 4 feet deep, roughly 500 feet across, and ran the full length of the avalanche path (around 2000 vertical feet), coming to rest just shy of the quarry road. A large avalanche ran in Marble Bowl proper early in the storm cycle and is now partially refilled. The natural cycle continued even today as a north-facing terrain feature called Timber Slots ran naturally while we were there. Avalanches of Whitehouse, Treasure, Mud Gulch, and in the Mill slide path were all visible.