3/16/2023 Field Report - Aspen

There was around of 15 inches of colder storm snow that capped the 10 inches of very dense snow that fell during the day Wednesday. Skiers triggered two very large avalanches in the storm snow today.

The D2.5 avalanche is also captured in this separate observation https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/field-report/d24ca893-3c7c-4e6f-9e7e-5055b759f95f

Raspberry Ridge, Marble area

From the quarry road up the eastern flanks of Marble Peak, then along Raspberry Ridge. Descended northeast-facing slopes back to the quarry road.

Two separate parties triggered two very large avalanches in very close proximity. Each avalanche broke around 3 feet deep at the interface of concern from the March h 11 storm event. Both ran east northeast-facing slopes around. The D2.5 avalanche was triggered by a skier on a convex roll around 10, 600 ft. The D3 avalanche was triggered by a skier on the ridge kicking off a small cornice chunk around 11,200 feet. The D3 avalanche stepped into deeper layers in place pulling of smaller, deeper pockets (see video).

Got one minor collapse on the ridge itself, but confined to just below my skis. The atmospheric river event from March 10-11 dropped around 10 inches of very dense and wet snow that was capped by around a foot of colder snow. This wet snow-dry snow was the culprit in two skier-triggered avalanches breaking one to two feet deep on March 13 and March 14. This interface was then buried by the March 15-16 atmospheric river event, which once again dropped 10 inches of very dense snow capped with around 15 inches of colder, drier snow. This put the interface of concern down around 3 feet deep in most places.

Warm and overcast with brief periods of sun breaking through. There was a light northerly wind at ridgetop.