Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Jan 17, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Warm below treeline with increasing clouds throughout the day. Near and above-treeline wind was the dominate weather factor. Moderate to strong southwest winds made travel and pit digging unpleasant as what snow was left for transport was rapidly blowing on to leeward slopes.
Snowpack
Below-treeline the snowpack is super weak and faceted. Getting off the old skin track was a wallowing experience as you sank deeply in unsupportable snow. Near and above-treeline were a different story, however. We dug in two locations, one on a northeast slope near-treeline, the other on an east facing slope in the alpine on the apron of a wind-effected slope. The first site near-treeline was reasonably uniform and consolidated but did have a propagating result in an ECT about a foot down. It's unlikely to see avalanches breaking near the ground with this structure, but upper-snowpack weaknesses will be something to watch for thorough this next storm cycle. Higher in the alpine the structure where we dug was much worse and variable. 5cm layers of facets were sandwiched between layers of hardened wind slabs. This area was actively loading and will be dangerous by tomorrow morning.
Avalanche
Observed a few small natural avalanches in the 10-mile range below wind-loaded ridges.