Vail & Summit County
AvalancheTim Bounds · Apr 17, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
0700 @ 11,500' was cold with light winds out of the northwest. Once the sun got over the ridge it warmed up a bit.
Snowpack
Skied SE aspect near/above treeline. 30 cm of cold, dry, powder on top of what felt like a hockey rink underneath. I slammed my probe into the ground a couple of times to try to break through the crust layer without much success. But the stuff on top made for great skiing.
Avalanche
D 1.5 on SE aspect, looks like it was from a cornice fall. The 2 pictures below show the identical slope. The first picture is from 2 weeks ago after the moderate wind/snow event around April 3rd. The second picture is from this morning. Saw other smaller chunks of cornice that had fallen further up the ridge (eastward). See 3rd pic; it's kind of hard to see due to lighting, and I was not close to the area where the cornice broke. Also saw a few small (D1) point releases on westerly aspects which all fanned out from steep, rocky terrain features. Probably ran yesterday afternoon.