Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Kreston Rohrig · Feb 27, 2021 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Cloudy and snowy all morning with new accumulation in the 2-4" range. Chilly out there with low temps and a light breeze.

Snowpack

Below 10k, the snowpack is still super thin. Depths ranged from 30-50cm and was either fully facted or a mix of melt/freeze grains. Tons of ground hazards poking through or barley covered. Higher up around 10600' we around and found depths over a meter. On South-facing slopes, the snowpack was littered with melt/freeze crusts a smaller upper slab, and weak facets and depth hoar near the ground. Boot pen went straight to the ground. Surprisingly, bonding was good between this stratified layering and we had no propagation in ECTs. West-facing slopes at the same elevation had less crusts and a more robust slab. As we descended, the slab quickly faded away and weak facets took over within a few hundred feet. This is the thinnest snowpack I've seen in this terrain.

Avalanche

None observed.