Details
- Observer: blase reardon Brian Lazar
- Organization: Forecasters, CAIC
Location
- BC Zone: Aspen
- Area Description: West Willow Creek (Snowmass Sidecountry). Near and above treeline, 11000-12600 ft. Chute between Omega and Vertigo to gully between She's Easy and Headwall, then back to ski area.
Weather
- Ridgeline Wind Speed: 5-10 mph
- Ridgeline Wind Direction: SW
- Wind Loading: None
- Temperature: 24 F
- Sky Cover: Broken
- Most Significant Precip Rate: S-1 - < 1 cm/hr
- Weather Description: Skies alternating between scattered and broken. One very brief, very light flurry. Winds light, sun strong.
Snowpack
- Snowpack Description: Scoured, melted, or crammed with hard, wind-deposited snow.
|
|
- Snowpack Obsvervation #1
- Cracking: None
- Collapsing: None
- Persistent Weak Layer: Yes
- Comments: Patchy snow cover on steep slopes. Spongy but supportable crusts w skim of recent snow. HS up to 75 cm on slopes not receiving such direct insolation. Mushy slabs over soft basal facets. Top 10-15 cm wet, w melt well developed melt forms.
|
|
|
- Snowpack Obsvervation #2
- Cracking: None
- Collapsing: None
- Persistent Weak Layer: Yes
- Comments: Hard slabs of variable thickness fill concave slopes and gullies. Probing in one feature showed differences of 50-75 cm over 10 m. Snowpack pencil-knife hard slabs w thin (1cm) soft layers at interfaces. Mostly small rounds, melt forms. Basal DH/ FC grains not large on slope where we dug. No results in DT 22; break. You would have to hit thin spot or edge of lens to trigger slab.
|
Media
Images
Figure 1: Snow profile near edge of drifted slope at base of She's Easy. Hard slab over basal weak layer. Would be hard for a person to trigger this slab except where ~ 1/2 as thick. NE-facing, above treeline, West Willow Creek. 3-12-18.
Figure 2: On this above-treeline slope, thick slabs lie in the gullies, with softer, thinner snow around the rocks. West Willow, 3-12-18.
Figure 3: Dense, hard slabs lie in the shadowed concavities, with thin snow - potential trigger points - around the rocks. West Willow, 3-12-18.
Figure 4: On this north-facing, above treeline slope, your most likely to trigger a hard slab of drifted snow from the edges, near the rocks, where the slabs are thinner and softer. 3-12-18.