Vail & Summit County
SnowpackZach Taylor · Feb 25, 2012 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
sunny, clear skies, warm weather (3 degrees C) at base of east Vail area winds were a bit breezy at Benchmark, wind transport of snow was obviously occuring and loading north facing slopes in the area.
Snowpack
combination of windslab and powder on snow surface in the upper Abraham's slide path, Slushy water saturated snow in lowerelevations and solar aspects of area by noon. no pits were dug Obvious, avoidable windpillow at entrance of the skier's left side of Abrahams. It was skied over multiple times by other parties earlier in the day without sliding. It still seemed a little suspect to me so we skied around the entrance through trees and entered the slide path below the suspect area and moved quickly from there. My observations in the area seemed over all consistant with the current avalanche conditions being reported by the CAIC. I would call it overall "scary moderate" with slopes that would be harder to trigger than past days but would have great consequence if triggered. no recent avalanche activity was observed. There were a few observable crown lines that were partially filled in in the Marvins drainage and seemed to have occured a few days or a week ago during the last snow cycle. We chose a very highly traveled line with many tracks through it (more than one track per meter across), skied the line conservatively and quickly. People were skiing more balsy lines than I would personally be willing to in the area today. East Marvins, amongst other suspect areas saw tracks with no resulting avalanches. Despite no obvious signs of recent avalanches or other signs of instability in the area I am not trusting the current snow pack much. Lower elevations were wet and warm today. Wet slabs on lower aspects could certainly have been an issue today additional to dry slab issues at the higher elevations of the area although no activity was observed.