Vail & Summit County

Avalanche

Anonymous · Jan 16, 2019 · Vail & Summit County

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Weather

Snow/Heavy snow. Winds picked up in the afternoon. Gusty at TL

Snowpack

Lots of shooting cracks on Southern aspects. Had one small pocket rip out while skinning underneath it. New snow seemed really touchy on old crust.

Avalanche

1st run: Lots of shooting cracks on Southern aspects. Had one small pocket rip out while skinning underneath it. New snow seemed really touchy on old crust. 2nd run: Skined up west facing chute that had a little NW aspect in it. On our ascent we purposely stayed on the more west facing side. We were concerned about loading on the NW side. Skier 1 triggered a storm slab on NW aspect. Crown was 2-7" deep and propagated down the ridge. Skier 1 wasn't caught.