Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Mar 17, 2017 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Weather data from local weather station. Skies were mostly cloudy this morning decreasing to partly cloudy by 11 AM.
Snowpack
I traveled on above treeline east and southeast aspects and found a stable snowpack with little concern for Loose Wet avalanches. The snow surface was frozen and just soft enough to edge into at 12 PM on an east-facing slope. At 3 PM on a southeast-facing slope the snow had warmed to a depth of 3 cms. In a steep rocky area, conditions were a little different with warming to about 10 cms but still no significant rollerballing. In both east and southeast snowpits I found a faceted layer from 50 to 60 cms from this surface. The snow above this layer is knife to pencil hard and it would be very unlikely to affect this weak layer or for free water to make it through these dense layers in the next few days.
Avalanche
Very little avalanche activity (new or old) was observed in the Ten Mile Range and on all visible peaks.