It was a stormy day with moist snow. The height of snow was about 4' on the west side of the ridge, and 5' on the east side. 1' of new snow from this week sat on a melt-freeze crust and was more sensitive on east slopes.

south of Aspen

I moved along east and west aspects near tree line from the Aspen ski area

The west slopes had clearly been affected by sun and wind. There were several upper crusts and the snowpack was rounding except for the 2' of depth hoar on the bottom. An extended column test had propagating results in the top of the depth hoar with hard taps. There was 1' of snow from this week and it consistently sheared off the melt-freeze crust underneath it when I shoveled snow.

East slopes were about 1' deeper than west slopes. They had similar melt-freeze crusts from the warm periods in January and February but seemed to have much more loading from the big Valentine's storm. Also similar to west slopes, the new snow on east slopes was unstable and sliding off the melt-freeze crust underneath it. However the sensitivity was much higher.

Overall the upper snowpack was quite firm on all aspects. Crust-facet combinations were a concern, and the lower 2' of the snowpack was weak. Sensitivity was difficult to assess. A hard slab avalanche would be devastating and damaging in this area.

Skies were overcast all day with low clouds obscuring the mountains. Light snow was blowing from the northwest all day. Precipitation intensity peaked midday and tapered in the early afternoon. Temps were in the low 20s but it felt warmer and the snow was moist.