Details

• Date: 2020/04/04

• Observer: Matt Huber Brandon Levy
• Organization: Forecaster, Colorado Avalanche Information Center

Location

• BC Zone: Aspen
• Area Description: Independence Pass, west side, near Upper Lost Mans.

Weather

• Ridgeline Wind Speed: 5-10 mph
• Ridgeline Wind Direction: S
• Wind Loading: Previous
• Temperature: 25 F
• Sky Cover: Broken
• Depth of Total Snow: 145 cm
• Most Significant Precip Rate: S-1 - < 1 cm/hr
• Weather Description: Cloud cover increased throughout the trip with spotty, isolated snow showers with no accumulation. Temperatures kept near and above treeline snow surfaces generally dry through 1:00pm when we left,, below treeline snow surfaces became wet early afternoon. Winds were not strong enough for noticeable blowing snow on ridgeline except for an occasional gust.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: We were able to dig on southwest and east aspects at about 11,600. The snowpack on both aspects is strikingly similar. The upper snowpack consists of multiple pencil hard crusts sandwiching thin soft layers of recent snow and facets. The lowest noticeable layer in the upper snowpack, likely March 18, is a thin layer of facets on the east aspect producing moderate propagating results and moderate compression tests on southwest. The mid-pack is dominated by the early February storm, with 50 60 centimeters of 1 finger to pencil hard rounds. The basal layer of very large depth hoar seems to have lost strength in this area, both aspects produced moderate propagating results at the top of the depth hoar layer On the east-facing slope. Water from previous warm ups had not penetrated into the basal layer and the depth hoar was dry and uncohesive, dry to moist on the southwest slope.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: Cornice fall forced a slab out as it fell, above treeline on a very steep, rocky northeast-facing slope. A small loose wet avalanche neae Mcfarlands was seen from the road, possibly skier triggered

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2020/04/03  †		1	>TL	NE	SS	N	R1	D2
Date: 2020/04/03 (Estimated) Observer: Matt Huber Brandon Levy Organization: Forecaster, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Area Description: Large chunk of cornice fall, hard to tell exactly how wide the slab propagated
	2020/04/04  †	Richmond Hill	1	<TL	E	WL	U	R1	D1.5
Date: 2020/04/04 (Estimated) Observer: Matt Huber Brandon Levy Organization: Forecaster, Colorado Avalanche Information Center Landmark: Richmond Hill

Media

Images