Vail & Summit County
AvalancheDemitri Carahalios · Feb 14, 2018 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clear, and warming into the 30’s at the base area. Strong 30 mph wind gusts at the summit out of the southwest.
Snowpack
Thin wind crust at the top with large cornices atop each chute. Soft snow at the top of the chute with creamy snow further down. Snowpack structure varied from rapidly warming windslab near summit to thinner faceted snow below tree line. Snowpack in the chute was very reactive with 6-12 inches of wind affected snow sliding on a sun/wind crust mid layer with sub-surface facets also present in sheltered areas. . Further down snowpack was firm but consistent with minimal depth host. Dug several pits near tree line and found a deep and relatively unreactive snowpack. Still the problem of persistent slab remained with depth hoar. Deep snowpack led us to believe full depth avalanche was unlikely.
Avalanche
Used and improvised snow saw attached to my probe and a climbing harness belay system attached to exposed rocks above the chute we cut the cornice off releasing a 12-15x6x8 foot cornice to suddenly release. Cornice fall cause fracture propagation and caused most of the chute to slide with a crown depth f 6-12 inches running the full avalanche path onto a previous slide, probably several weeks old. Slide began at about 12,000 feet and ran at least 400 feet down the slide path.