Vail & Summit County
AvalancheKreston Rohrig · Apr 9, 2020 · Vail & Summit County
Weather
Clouds increased over the 10-Mile while skies remained blue in pockets over Lake Dillon. Sunny and warm below treeline with only a slight breeze at higher elevations.
Snowpack
Below treeline the snowpack is moist to wet through and through. Around 11k, the change starts and only the upper foot or two is wet, but water is moving down through the snowpack. We dug a quick pit around 11500' on an east aspect and found many old crust or thin near surface facet layers wetting through the snowpack. The upper foot or so was completely saturated (boot pen was up to boot top) with distinct wet layers every 20cm. The mid-pack slab is still super dense and cohesive (1F to Pencil hard) and sits over moist 4Finger facets at the bottom. No results in stability tests.
Avalanche
Many wet loose avalanches were observed in 10-Mile Canyon from Copper to Frisco. One reported previously above the ponds started up high as a wet loose and punched out a significant wet slab down in the apron. A few other wet loose were observed off of Buffalo up high in the cirque on steep south-facing slopes.