Details

• Date: 2023/02/27

• Observer: Dylan Craaybeek
• Organization: Forecaster, CAIC

Location

• BC Zone: Aspen
• Area Description: Ashcroft Mountain

Weather

• Weather Description: 25F in Ashcroft at 7:30 with Broken sky coverage and Moderate wind. Snow transport visible at ridgeline.

Snowpack

• Snowpack Description: Every slope we traveled on today was composed of F-hard (on the hand hardness scale), well-developed facets below the new snow from last week. There are a variety of melt-freeze crusts and thin slabs of wind-packed rounded grains on southerly and westerly aspects with a slab about 15-30cm thick once you get above 10,000 ft. Several collapses were experienced on wind-loaded terrain features around 10800 ft.

Avalanches

• Avalanche Description: Ashcroft Mountain has numerous avalanche paths that threaten the Express Creek road, a popular route for backcountry travelers going to the Markley, Opa's Taylor, and Goodwin-Greene huts. The first three avalanche paths you cross as you ascend the road are known as Express 1, 2 and 3 respectively (north to south). Express 2 and 3 share a similar runout as the paths join right around the road. At some point between February 23-25, 2023 Express 2 had a D2.5 natural avalanche cross the road and reach the creek. The avalanche in Express 2 was divided by a large terrain feature halfway up the avalanche path and the debris split into two different flow paths. Express 3 had a D3 natural avalanche cross the road, cross the creek, and break/bend trees on the opposite side of the drainage burying the creek in around 20 feet of avalanche debris. These avalanches failed during an unusually strong wind event that occurred during a snowstorm. The Upper Tayler SNOTEL at 10717 ft. about 4 mile south of Ashcroft Mountain gained 1.3 inches of SWE from February 20-25 increasing from 13.5 to 14.8 inches of SWE on the season. From February 23 at 17:00 to February 25 at 17:00 Aspen Highland Peak weather station, about 8 miles northwest of Ashcroft Mountain, recorded consistent wind speeds between 15-30mph with gusts reaching over 60mph around noon on the 24, consistently from a south-southwest to a southwest direction.

	Date	Location/Path	#	Elev	Asp	Type	Trig	SizeR	SizeD
	2023/02/25  †	Ashcroft	1	TL	NW	HS	N	R3	D3
Date: 2023/02/25 (Estimated) Observer: Dylan Craaybeek Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Ashcroft Mountain, Express 3 Landmark: Ashcroft Average Slope Angle: 39 ° Maximum Slope Angle: 45 ° Elevation: 1500 ft Sliding Surface: G - At Ground/Ice/Firm Weak Layer: Layer Weak Layer Grain Type: Depth Hoar Average Vertical: 1600 ft Comments: The avalanche broke dozens of small trees with the largest measured diameter being 8cm and an average diameter of 4cm for broken vegetation. The debris pile is estimated to be about 20 feet deep above Express Creek and ran up the other side of the drainage bending and breaking a few small aspen trees.
	2023/02/23  †	Ashcroft	1	TL	NW	HS	N	R2	D2.5
Date: 2023/02/23 (Estimated) Observer: Dylan Craaybeek Organization: Forecaster, CAIC Area Description: Ashcroft Mountain, Express 2 Landmark: Ashcroft Elevation: 1300 ft Sliding Surface: G - At Ground/Ice/Firm Weak Layer: Layer Weak Layer Grain Type: Depth Hoar Average Vertical: 1300 ft Comments: The debris pile ran down to Express Creek but did not cross the creek. The avalanche was large enough to bend over small aspens and break a few branches.

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