Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg, Ethan Greene, Dan Gibbs · Jan 2, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Most clear day with clouds obscuring some of the higher peaks in the area. Light breeze near and below treeline. It looked like winds were a bit stronger above treeline but wind loading did not look effective. New snow from the last 24 hours was about 6 to 8 inches.
Snowpack
We found ~8" of new snow with no obvious signs of instability. In sheltered areas the snow was very soft, not slabby, and unreactive in stability tests. Looking up the drainage at the higher peaks the recent wind loading looked limited to just below ridgetop. Small wind-loaded terrain features near treeline cracked underfoot but we did not find larger terrain features to test.
Avalanche
No avalanches observed along Highway 91 from Leadville to Copper and along the east side of the Tenmile Range from Frisco to Blue River