Field Report

Aspen - CO

2025/01/06
Lat: 39.072, Lon: -107.106
Backcountry Area: Aspen
Author: Dylan Craaybeek
Organization: Forecaster, CAIC

Report Information

Observation Summary

A bit more shallow than the Raggeds side of Marble with more unstable snowpack test results and more signs of instability (collapsing and some minor cracking). Walked along the margins of several avalanche paths without triggering any avalanches but also did not feel safe going very close to any steep slopes. There was a human-triggered avalanche on a steep slope on the north side of Sheep that appears to have caught someone most likely yesterday. (observation here: https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/90915f23-9304-41ac-bee0-3116367d11c2 ). This area also seems eerily quiet but I would not be at all surprised if a backcountry traveler remotely triggers a D3 around here in the next several days.

Area Description

Lost Trail Creek

Route Description

Daniels Hill trailhead up the road to Sheep Mountain across to Arkansas Mountain, southwest-facing slopes back to the road and back down to the trailhead

Avalanche

Saw an avalanche

A human-triggered avalanche on the north side of Sheep that may have caught someone yesterday (coded and images in this ob: https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/90915f23-9304-41ac-bee0-3116367d11c2) and an older, large avalanche on the east-facing slopes of Arkansas Mountain above Silver Creek that could have been natural or remotely triggered by snowmobilers that were in the area around the same time based on how buried their tracks were and how buried the crown was.

i
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Date # Elev Asp Type Trig SizeR SizeD Problem Type Location
01/02/2025
1 TL E SS U R2 D2 Persistent Slab

Snowpack

Cracking: Minor
Collapsing: Moderate

The slab is consistently 50 to 70cm thick here with an average height of snow (HS) around 130 to 160cm. Several collapses from individual terrain features to slope scale collapses on east and southeast slopes above 11,000 ft. The largest collapse I triggered today was on a southeast-facing slope off Sheep Mountain around 11,500 feet on a 25-degree slope that I thought triggered an avalanche lower down on the slope but I couldn't tell for sure and couldn't safely get close enough to where the slope steepens to find out. The new snow falling today and over the past couple of days is relatively low-density (around 65-80 kg/m^3) and still Fist hard (on the hand hardness scale). The rime ice layer is present up to 11,600 ft. and is the only distinct layer in the slab from the past couple weeks of new snow with large grains of graupel above and below it.

Weather

Overcast with on-and-off snow throughout the day. Around 2 inches of low-density snow accumulated throughout the day in Lost Trail Creek. Light northwest wind with occasional moderate gusts.

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