Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

10-21-13 at noon i hiked up the east facing leward slope "kitchen wall" above the lakes on Loveland pass. We had received 4 inches of fresh the night before. I wanted to test the growing cornice and put weight on the slope below to test the many layers that had been developing. walking to the edge of the cornice about 5 feet away 10-15 feet of the cornice broke loose as i began to stomp another foot step. i think a sneeze could have broke the cornice loose. it then funneled into a narrow chute, causing the above slab avalanche to continue to the bottom of the face. The day before i ski cut and rode a chute with in 10 degrees of the same aspect on the same wall. This chute was a little more protected and more north facing. during the ski cut i was seeing 2-3 foot cracks in the surface layer, moving less than an inch. the base layer was 6 inches of frozen firm facets. above that was much softer snow with a few wind layers. [CAIC note: this is the avalanche that was noted and described in a 10/22 ob by Scott Toepfer. SS-ASc-R1D1-G]