Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

seth hyman · Jan 22, 2014 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

-1C at 11 am. High Solar, blue sky, cirrus clouds, 5 mph winds from NW

Snowpack

No cracking, collapsing, or noises at anytime. Variable wind slab formation and drifting snow on SH and faceting crystals. Ice Layer forming at the surface of NE/ E/ SE/ facing slopes. Within in the runout zones of E facing slopes, I found rock hard chunks of debris mixed in with decomposing wind drift. The next layer down was a combination of knife hard wind slabs forming on top of previously hardened snow (wind slabs) from the stronger winds last week. Below this was another variable layer of freeze melt crust, and progressively rounded depth hoar, As a side note the sun glare reflecting from E/ NE slopes of Vail Pass (Battle Mountain side) was easily visible from atop the north face of Coon.

Avalanche

Many slides on E -NE facing slopes from at last week, but nothing recent. Roller balls on south facing slopes below treeline,