Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · Apr 16, 2016 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

New snow has settled to about 12 inches. Snow flurries at times but no new accumulation in the time we were out. Calm winds below treeline but any exposed ridgeline was seeing strong sustained northeasterly winds.

Snowpack

A lot of minor cracking in the top 4 inches of storm snow but new snow seems to be bonded well to underlying crusts. Although we did not see any obvious signs of instability (no collapses, recent avalanches, or significant shooting cracks), we stayed away from most steep slopes today especially those being wind loaded. We observed intense wind loading at ridgetop. Northeasterly winds were building thick and dense wind slabs on south through west slopes.

Avalanche

No avalanche activity observed but visibility was poor.