Aspendell

We toured above Aspendell today to see what was left after the recent wind event. As expected, surface conditions were widely variable, including soft new snow, nearly supportable wind board, breakable wind crust, and wind-scoured sun crust, sometimes all occuring on identical aspects and exposures. Upper and lower elevations were largely wind scoured, in many places having suffered a net loss of snow coverage during the recent storm. Near-treeline slopes in protected areas showed up to 30cm of new snow, but that was also widely variable. We looked for signs of fragile wind slabs and didn't find much, with the overall snowpack and new snow deposition being pretty shallow in this area. After undercutting the surface slab with our skin track, we were able to get a large, planar release in one spot that was particularly wind loaded, so we dug a quick pit in this zone to assess the failure. We were at about 10k' on a NE aspect and the HS here was a (relatively) impressive 225cm, with the new snow making up 45cm of that. Below 180cm was the consistent and cohesive F-4F-1F old snowpack, and probing suggested the hollow facet layer at the ground was present here. Our failure had been about 15cm down at a density change in the new snow, with the slopewide consistency of the planar surface suggesting a break in the snowfall at some point. This was one of the most leeward and windloaded slopes that we could find, and we didn't find any other evidence of instability in the area.

Quick report