Aspen

Northwest winds transported snow in the AM. Wind speeds decreased and easily transportable snow diminished. Thursday nights storm produced ~3 inches. Storm totals since Tuesday reached up to two feet near 12000 feet and around 8 inches at 9,600 feet. cloud cover: scattered; wind loading: previous; recent snowfall (cm): 65; snow avail for transport: moderate amounts

Storm totals since Tuesday slightly exceed two feet in this area at treeline.  Warm temperatures and sunshine on Thursday formed a soft 1-2cm crust on southerly aspects, with a few inches of snow above from Thursday night.  Solar aspects became slightly moist around midday.  We crossed a handful of recently drifted features without result.  Several ECT's did not produce propagating results.  ECTN's in this week's storm snow broke only a shovel width on storm density changes, but did not appear problematic.  In each spot I looked, this week's storm snow was well-bonded to the crust below.  Minor cracking was found a few inches deep in last night's wind-drifted snow. No significant signs of instability underfoot. Minor cracking of a few feet in drifted snow from Thursday night.