Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Scott Von Thun · Dec 29, 2016 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Clear skies, warm (high 20s) throughout the day.

Snowpack

Significantly wind effected snow at and above treeline. Less than 30cm of snow above treeline, consisted of 1-2 inch breakable wind slab on top of sugar. Near treeline, blown snow resulted in consistently greater snow depths ~ 120cm. Surface snow (thin layer above the wind slab) was sugary. Two to three distinct wind slab layers found within the top 20 cm, depending on where on the slope we were. 3F/4F below the wind slab until 80cm - pencil hardness between 80 and 15cm from ground. 3F facets at 15cm to ground. ECT failed the top wind layer (115cm) at 14, second wind layer (100cm) at 20. Neither break propagated across the rest of the column, both isolated to directly under the shovel. ECT did not produce results at 80cm layer boundary or at ground. 80cm boundary could be separated by hand after completing the compression test. Slab from 100cm to 80cm remained cohesive after removing from column.

Avalanche

No avalanche activity seen.