Vail & Summit County
AvalancheEvan Rasmussen · Apr 27, 2016 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
At treeline, snow was accumulating up to 3" on the east face with strong winds mostly out of the NW. Very low visibility.
Snowpack
Very firm, refrozen snow below, at and above treeline. New snow accumulated to 3" on east face. I got my probe out on the east face above treeline and measured a max depth of 219cm of snow, most of which felt pretty consolidated. There was a very firm layer around 150cm under the surface that had significantly less consolidated snow below. As we dropped into Silver Couloir, new snow totals were around 6 inches with windloading adding 18 inches or more in spots. Snow was powder dry in the upper sections of the couloir. Two ski cuts across the upper portion yielded no results. As we reached 10,500ft or so the snow started to get heavier.
Avalanche
Only activity witnessed was a couple of very small fractures within the storm snow that broke 20-25 ft across and ran approximately 50 ft before coming to a stop. Neither were large enough to bury a person. Some of our turns required us to navigate through old avalanche debris. No big piles, just basketball sized debris buried below the new snow.