Details

• Date: 2020/02/08

• Observer: Brian Lazar
• Organization: Forecast Staff, Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Location

• BC Zone: Aspen
• Area Description: Backcountry areas observed from Aspen Highlands ski area

Weather

• Ridgeline Wind Speed: 20-30 mph
• Ridgeline Wind Direction: W
• Temperature: 25 F
• Sky Cover: Few
• Depth of New Snow: 3 in
• Weather Description: Mostly sunny and warm. Relatively calm down low and very blustery at ridge top with westerly winds blowing 20-30mph with gusts in the 50s.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: Snowpack took a beating from the last ferocious storm. The 48+ hours of very strong winds wreaked havoc in the alpine. Some windward slopes stripped bare, lee slopes loaded pretty fat with fresh slabs with more pronounced loading down toward near treeline and even below treeline. Lots of cross-loaded features stiff wind-drifted slabs, sastrugi. A lot of blowing snow today, but most of it did not seem to load slopes and just sublimated away.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: Surprisingly limited natural avalanche activity from last storm. There were a few natural Wind Slab avalanches that broke around 2 feet deep and ran a long way on previous snow surface. Two in the same area of the Fingers of Hoghlands ridge towards Conundrum Creek, and one in Maroon Bowl.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2020/02/07  †	Conundrum Creek	1	TL	E	SS	N	R2	D2
Date: 2020/02/07 (Estimated) Observer: Brian Lazar Organization: Forecast Staff, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Area Description: Five Fingers higher in the path Landmark: Conundrum Creek
	2020/02/07  †	Conundrum Creek	1	<TL	E	SS	N	R2	D1.5
Date: 2020/02/07 (Estimated) Observer: Brian Lazar Organization: Forecast Staff, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Area Description: Five Fingers lower in the path Landmark: Conundrum Creek
	2020/02/07  †	Maroon Creek	1	>TL	NW	SS	N	R2	D2
Date: 2020/02/07 (Estimated) Observer: Brian Lazar Organization: Forecast Staff, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Area Description: Maroon Bowl Landmark: Maroon Creek
	2020/02/08  †	Other	1	TL	E	SS	AF	R2	D1
Date: 2020/02/08 (Estimated) Observer: Brian Lazar Organization: Forecast Staff, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Area Description: Right near PHQ Landmark: Other

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