Vail & Summit County
SnowpackKreston Rohrig · Nov 15, 2011 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Stormy day with moderate winds and very light precipitation
Snowpack
From a visual standpoint, this weeks forecast couldn't be more accurate. The terrain on the north side of Uneva Peak is completely wind scoured, save for small pockets of wind loaded snow in gullies and depressed features. Two slides were simultaneously triggered, potentially by my dog, on a recently wind loaded slope. Both were remotely triggered and produce crowns ranging from 1 to 5 feet. Though slow moving, these slides ran to the ground and moved an impressive amount of snow. The slab that created these slides was an extremely dense formation created by the major wind events of the last two days. Knife hard in density, this slab was extremely reactive to any weighted triggers and propagated far further than the slides that were created. In the deepest rock gulley, the crown pulled out a 5 foot slab of snow, which was impressive compared to the barren landscape dominating the rest of the terrain. Bottom line, nasty potential for future snow load on north and easterly aspects with similar slab formation on weak facets...