Vail & Summit County
AvalancheAnonymous · Mar 16, 2015 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clear skies, temps in the upper 40's before noon, light SW wind above treeline, calm at treeline and below treeline.
Snowpack
Highly variable but well on it's way to isothermic at and below treeline. Northerly and shaded aspects faired better with some cold snow remaining 20+cm down, but much of the snow was wet to ground by mid morning. Knee deep boot pen at 10am below treeline on east and south aspects. Solar aspects above treeline were still supportive at 11am because of light SW winds. Tour started at appx. 10,200' and ended at appx. 12k. Back at the car by 11:30am.
Avalanche
There were old AE avalanches from control work outside of Copper Mountain's boundary in the upper east facing start zones with crowns at appx. 12,100'. After skiing lower pitches above treeline, I remotely triggered a small wet slide below treeline in the lower gully runout/terrain trap from about 50 meters away. Roughly WS-ASr-R2-D1-O/G on a 40 degree NE aspect at appx. 10,500' at around 11am. Crown was roughly 50cm at its deepest. Not a particularly impressive slide, but interesting that it triggered remotely on a northerly aspect before noon. The snow in this area was completely unsupportive, with full-depth ski pen. by 11am.