Aspen
AvalancheDylan Craaybeek, Brian Lazar · Feb 7, 2025 · Aspen
Weather
Warm temperatures and scattered to broken sky coverage. Mid-40s Fahrenheit as we were leaving the trailhead at 8700 ft. around 14:30
Snowpack
The snowpack on north-facing slopes near treeline was supportable to sleds, skis, and boots and composed of faceted grains throughout that have seen significant rounding in the last week and melting/refreezing in the top 10 to 30 cm. The December drought layer is a melt-freeze crust almost to the point of classifying it as an ice layer but you can still identify the old faceted grains within the crust. Snowpack tests showed no fractures occurring in most tests with some non-propagating failures within the depth hoar around 20cm below the December drought layer. A propagation saw test within the depth hour produced a propagating failure after cutting just underneath 50% of the column (PST 47/100 (END) @56cm up in a 120cm deep snowpit). All loose avalanche problems are significantly less concerning with the top of the snowpack being composed of melt forms and decent overnight freezes and the December drought layer saw notable liquid water pool across the layer completely melting and refreezing all of the well-developed facets everywhere we dug. If a slab avalanche were to fail around this area it would most likely fail in the depth hoar on a wind-loaded slope and likely be isolated to individual terrain features without breaking wide across a slope, so relatively small but deep. South-facing slopes around 10 to 20 degrees steep had a mostly supportable melt-freeze crust on the snow surface about 1 to 2 inches thick. The height of snow on near treeline south slopes was around 50 to 70cm.
Avalanche
Several large Loose Wet avalanches and a couple of older slabs on north-facing slopes near treeline.