Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Mar 14, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Grey day with flat light conditions. Ridgetop winds were light out of the NW, with very light orographic showers continuing throughout the day.
Snowpack
I dug on a SW facing slope near treeline adjacent to a couple different slopes that had crown lines from last weeks avalanche cycle. The snowpack was not very deep in this area but surprisingly the bottom 50cm was all well bonded depth hoar. Above this rests a consolidated slab 70cm thick formed from the beginning of March. It was no wonder that there were widespread avalanches in this area as these new slabs formed on top of a weak basal layer. Interesting though, the snowpack is gaining strength and the recently formed slab has bonded well to the depth hoar below. The only layer that produced results was the small wind slab that formed overnight, and even that did not produce propagating test results. In this area, it seems that the recent storm snow has settled out and the snowpack overall is in much better shape. Still, I'm not recommending stepping into any bigger terrain. We observed Many wind-loaded slopes with giant overhanging cornices that looked very suspect and dangerous.
Avalanche
Only old avalanches that were previously reported.