Vail & Summit County
AvalancheJason Konigsberg · Jan 18, 2023 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
There wasn't much visibility today but I observed some wind loading near treeline. I would imagine wind loading was intense above treeline. There was 20 cm (8 in) of new snow. Winds from a northerly direction loading southerly slopes in the terrain I traveled.
Snowpack
I dug mostly on south-facing slopes below and near treeline. The snowpack is relatively shallow from 65 to 100 cm HS. Beneath the 8 inches of new snow there is a 1 to 2 cm thick melt-freeze crust. In sheltered terrain the new snow is not slabby and it is bonded well to the crust. Beneath the crust is very weak faceted snow. The crust should be able to handle a decent load, but I would expect avalanches to break near the ground on southerly slopes with a big multi-day storm; something we haven't seen in awhile around Summit Co. Near the ridge, drifted snow was forming mostly thin slabs. I was able to get shooting cracks and I suspect I would trigger small avalanches in the drifted snow if the slope was steeper. I also dug on a southwest-facing slope near treeline. I am guessing there was some previous wind loading because it was deeper than south at 120 cm. I found a slab up to one-finger hard sitting on top of 35 cm of weaker, faceted snow. I didn't perform any tests, but I think I would have gotten an ECTP28 at 35 cm from the ground or ECTX.---In general places I traveled showed a stubborn Persistent Slab avalanche problem. It will be interesting to see if the PSa problem was reactivated on slopes that received intense loading on Wednesday.
Avalanche
None observed but not much vis