Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Dec 29, 2019 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Brutally cold to start the day and didn't warm through noon. Cold pooling air kept the valleys frigid and frost nip was abundant. Higher elevations were slightly warmer. Lingering orographic showers kept visibility a little shrouded, but lifted by mid-day.
Snowpack
We didn't venture off tail with the sleds due to thin coverage and unsupportable snow. Shrubbery was seen poking out of the snow in many open fields and stepping off trail you'd go straight to the ground. I did dig on a southeast slope around 11000'. What I found was similar to other low elevation southerly slopes: 20cm of softer recent snow over a weak fist hard mid-pack slab, over weaker larger grained facets at the bottom. The mid-pack slab was sandwiched between two decomposing sun crusts. At the moment this snowpack is missing a slab and is relatively safe from avalanches. However, once we get a significant amount of snow, there are many weak structures that could fail.
Avalanche
None observed