Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKelli Rohrig · Jan 13, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Blustery, snowing S1 intermittently The winds mainly from the west
Snowpack
What was a lovely faceted ridge 3 days ago is now stiff and wind loaded. Friday the low angle ridge skied like a dream, today it was game on with a hard wind slab forming on the west side of the ridge. We opted for a more manageable west facing route off the ridge into the Bighorn drainage to avoid any wind issues. Friday is was nothing but skiing weak snow that moved with each turn, today we had multiple pockets rip out R1D1. The sides of the west, treed facing gulley were cross loading with 2-3" windslabs that were super touchy. They were small, but ran fast and with very little effort to trigger.
Avalanche
BTL W SS AS R1D1 x 2 ~9500'