Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig, Ryan Zarter · Jan 26, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Mostly sunny skies with moderate to strong gusty winds.
Snowpack
The snowpack above treeline is heavily wind-affected and highly variable. The most concerning areas are northeast to east to southeast-facing, where recent winds have formed a slab/weak layer sandwich in the upper portion of the snowpack. In most places around Loveland Pass, the snowpack is also shallow, and the weak snow near the ground continues to lose strength. This combination of stiff slabs sandwiching thin layers of weak facets in the upper portions of snowpack above weak snow at the ground is a perfect recipe for triggering small avalanches that step down and turn into really big avalanches. Lastly, the most recent soft slab was small, but very reactive. ECTP3 was a bit surprising.
Avalanche
Nothing new to report