Aspen

The sky had scattered clouds throughout the day and the sun felt strong and warm.

Around 9,660 ft on a west facing slope just below the Hunter Creek lookout the height of snow was 34cm. Here I found a supportable crust about 15 cm below the surface. An Extended Column Test did not produce propagation, but the snowpack did collapse right above the crust. On west and northwest-facing slopes, this crust remains thick and supportable, and I did not observe propagation or other signs of instability. As I continued to move around the compass to north and northeast facing slopes, the crust began collapsing under the weight of my skis, but did not propagate out further. East and northeast facing slopes hold a thinner and weaker crust, with a slightly deeper snowpack due to wind loading, even below treeline. Similar to the snowpack structure observed on Richmond Ridge prior to the January 2 storm. In the morning I observed surface hoar on the snow surface on west facing slopes. By midafternoon, the sun melted the surface hoar, forming a thin sun crust and by late afternoon, snow surfaces across all aspects were becoming warm and wet. The shallowest areas were observed on south and southeast facing slopes, where sun exposure has significantly reduced snow coverage. At elevations near 9,900 ft, some south facing slopes had no continuous snow cover at all, while remaining snow was sun affected. In shallow southeast facing terrain, I still observed a buried crust, though at lower elevations the snowpack became isothermal.