Vail & Summit County
AvalancheAndrew McWilliams · Nov 2, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Temperatures in the 20s with moderate west winds above treeline. Skies started with scattered clouds which became broken by the afternoon.
Snowpack
The snowpack in this area is rapidly losing strength. When this snow does get buried, it will likely become the interface for a new avalanche problem. In many places, ski penetration was to the ground and there was no slab at all. Where a slab existed above the snow from early October, it was not significantly harder than the older snow near the ground. Multiple snowpit tests only had one non-propagating result after six blows from the shoulder at the interface of the old and new snow. A thin wind-drifted layer was forming near the surface that was more reactive in snowpit tests, but no cracking or collapsing was noted. There is more snow and better coverage here than on the eastern side of Summit County, but overall the snow cover is still thin and discontinuous.
Avalanche
I saw an old avalanche on a southeast-facing slope above treeline that likely ran at the interface of the new and old snow just after the storm on 10/28. There were also multiple smaller avalanches within the storm snow on east aspects just below the ridgeline.