Aspen

Avalanche

Anonymous · Jan 29, 2017 · Aspen

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Weather

Sunny, cold morning but hut thermometer read in the low 30s by lunch.

Snowpack

Dug a hasty pit at top of slope previous day (roughly W/NW aspect, roughly 11,000 feet) -- found buried surface hoar layer approximately 25 cm from surface.

Avalanche

Skied adjacent slope multiple times previous days. Several skiers skied the nose on skiers left. Watched from bottom as skier one skied to the right of previous day's tracks (W? aspect, roughly 10,600 feet) Second skier skied just to the left of his tracks. She kicked off a small (R1D1) slab above her on a slight convexity. She was able to keep skiing down and to her right and not get caught. Crown was only 20 cm or so, maybe 30 feet wide, and ran only about 100 vertical feet.