Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Tom Grindlay · Feb 17, 2014 · Vail & Summit County

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Snowpack

The crowns that I could see were not much bigger than a foot and didn't run to ground. There were very few tracks which was odd for this trail but there was a little snow on the debris so I'm going to guess that the slides happened during the last snow cycle.

Avalanche

The slides were all well below tree line, about 9,300 feet on a north through east aspect. I was surprised how they all started and ran through the trees. It is a steep slope (>30 degrees). The biggest was 200 yards from top to bottom and 50 yards wide. There were at least 8 separate slides that covered the trail. There is no non-trail skiing to be had so I assume these were natural (there is a lot of beetle kill so maybe trees falling during any wind events could have caused these). This submission might not be worth posting but I went hiking here today instead of going for a trail snowmobile up in Zuma because of the avalanche danger and couldn't believe I saw this. I can't imagine what a line like "High Voltage" in Peru Creek is holding in it if it hasn't slide already.