Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek · Apr 5, 2024 · Aspen
Weather
Very windy! Consistent strong southerly winds gusting extreme and frequently knocking me off my feet. No concern about warming on the snow surface above the treeline. Some snow transport was visible along ridgelines but mostly just blowing the snow back into the atmosphere rather than loading leeward slopes. Near the treeline in West Willow Creek where the winds were only light to moderate temperatures got very warm by noon.
Snowpack
Snow surfaces were a mix of wind-scoured, wind-loaded, and sun-baked with very little in between above treeline. Above treeline, most slopes east through south to west had a supportable snow surface to boots. The wind was keeping these surfaces cold while near and below treeline the sunny slopes had a saturated snow surface by 10:00 A.M. Extreme south and southwest winds caused very sporadic wind-loading patterns with no real Wind Slab avalanche development throughout the day, just soft and enjoyable snow on northerly slopes. The average height of snow (HS) is around 180-220cm on northerly slopes with the March 23 weak layer about 50-70cm down. Although some surface hoar and rounding facets are still clearly visible in this layer the grains are well bonded to adjacent layers, showing advanced signs of rounding, and this layer is unreactive in snowpack tests done on northerly slopes between 11,000-11,500 feet. A consistent slab of P to K- hard (on the hand hardness scale) rounded grains is below the March 23 layer and insulating any backcountry travelers from impacting deeper persistent weak layers on these wind-loaded north and northeast slopes near and above treeline.
Avalanche
Observed many Loose Wet avalanches on sunny slopes at all elevations and did not see any slab avalanches on southerly aspects. Observed two notable avalanches closer (A Very Large avalanche on Willoughby Mountain: https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-report/af1a8baa-7cd5-4b91-98cf-24ce60b2f785 and a Large avalanche in West Willow Creek: https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-report/a2480c05-b980-489d-b0d6-0965a8194345 ). Several older avalanches deeper in the Elks were observed as well, most likely from March 31 or April 1.