Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Kreston Rohrig · Feb 15, 2020 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

The day started off nice but declined throughout the day. Clouds and ridgetop winds both increased by early afternoon.

Snowpack

I dug in two locations, one west-facing and the other east. Even though the snowpack depths differed (155 on west, 225 on east) and the most recent slabs were thicker in the east-facing pit, the structure was similar. Neither pit had propagating results in ECTs. The west-facing pit did fail and propagate after 30 taps when I wailed on it, which speaks to our current problem. It may take more force or multiple people to be on a slope before it fails. However, if it does, the slab is big and well connected through terrain. The facets below the slab are slowly gaining strength, but are a long way out from being completely off the radar.

Avalanche

The D3 avalanche I reported yesterday above Lost Lake was confirmed. It looks like it was triggered by a giant cornice fall, as huge chunks were missing along the massive overhanging ridge. There was also another smaller, but still D2 avalanche with the same trigger. A large section of cornice had failed and triggered the deeper slab below.