Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Colorado Adventure Guides · Jan 6, 2019 · Vail & Summit County

Weather

Group A- Near TH at 10,650ft Clear, Calm. At 10,900ft, Scattered sky, calm to light wind. Building clouds throughout afternoon. Group B- At 10,700ft. Clear, Calm. At 11,000ft. at 1310, Clear to Few clouds. Light South Wind. At 11,400ft at 1410, winds shift from South to Westerly, light gusts. Building clouds from the West.

Snowpack

Group A.- Near Th at 10,650ft noticed slight warming on S'lys, shallow snowpack. At 10,900 started to notice presence of surface hoar in protected areas. Stepping off of road around 11,200 onto more N'ly aspect noticed slight presence of strong over weak. Started seeing presence of windslab stepping into more open terrain. Dug pit @ 11,400ft, NW, HS120, Noticed multiple layers. Wind slab 8-10cm thick on surface, reactive, CTE SP. Also had CTH SP, down 70cm failing below a 3-4cm pencil crust. Verified with another CT and got no results. Group B- At 10,700 noticed warming on S'ly as well as some crusting. Presence of Strong over weak. At 11,000 HS average 100cm and presence of surface hoar in shaded and protected areas. Dug pit at 11,416 in shaded protected area. WSW, HS93cm. Not many layers found, fairly uniform snowpack from top to bottom. CTH BRK at 48cm. Depth hoar layer healing with a 1F hand hardness.

Avalanche

N/O