Vail & Summit County

Snowpack

Kevin Baker · Apr 13, 2013 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

The day started out nice with winds picking up throughout the day. Mostly sunny in the morning, with winds picking up to 30-50 mph gusts and overcast skies later.

Snowpack

We observed no signs of instability on our approach to the south ridge of Uneva, primarily south facing aspects. The area where the avalanche occurred was southwest facing with a sizeable cornice climber's right of the slide path right below the summit. There appeared to be significant wind loading on this face with 6-12" of new snow from the storm 2 days prior. Approximate slope angle was 30-35 degrees based on the contours on the map.