Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Jason Konigsberg · Dec 19, 2016 · Vail & Summit County

View on map

Weather

Winds were mostly calm BTL with some moderate gusts on NTL ridgelines. Plumes of snow visible off of ATL ridgelines.

Snowpack

This was the first day in some time that no significant cracking or collapsing was experienced. The obvious signs of instability are quickly fading away...A quick pit on a south-facing slope at 11k feet (BTL) revealed an overall depth of 80 cms. The top 70cm slab had an increasing hardness with depth with no prominent weaknesses. The bottom 10cms was depth hoar and large-grained facets with a four-finger hardness. One compression test resulted in a failure at the ground after a moderate amount of taps. The DH/FC layer was moist...Using my camera to zoom in on ATL terrain in the Gore Range and the mountains around Holy Cross, the coverage still looks discontinuous.

Avalanche

No recent avalanches were observed.